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AGRONOMIC AND POLYMORPHISM STUDY OF WILD OAT (AVENA FATUA L.) BIOTYPES AT DNA LEVEL

IMTIAZ KHAN^1*, GUL HASSAN¹, MUHAMMAD ISHFAQ KHAN¹, NAQIB ULLAH KHAN² AND KHAN BAHADER MARWAT¹

Abstract: Laboratory studies were conducted to compare the biotypes of wild oats collected across North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Federal capital areas of Pakistan. The wild oats biotypes included were named by their area from where collected i.e., Mardan, Malakand, Karak, D.I.Khan, NARC-Islamabad, Charsada, Peshawar, Swat and Kohat. The data were recorded for plant height (cm), leaf lamina width (cm), leaf lamina length (cm), number of leaves plant^-1 and polymorphism at DNA level. Different biotypes appeared to differ in their competitive ability, as due to variation in agronomic parameters. Range of amplified fragments was from < 250 to > 1000 bp in size. The degree of genetic polymorphism ranged from 0 to 100%, indicating that the studied germplasm of wild oat is genetically very diverse and possesses a higher degree of polymorphism. Consequently their competitive ability will also be varying. Thus, in the areas of the more competitive wild oats biotypes more attention will be needed on the control of wild oats as compared to the less competitive genotypes. Alternately, if using wild oat as a food or feed crop, then based on genetic distance estimates and dendrograms analysis, the most diverse biotypes could be used in future breeding programs aimed at improving genetic variability of wild oat germplasm.

¹Department of Weed Science, NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar 25130, Pakistan

²Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, NWFP Agricultural University Peshawar

^*Corresponding author E-mail: imtiazagri@yahoo.com