Kernel size and shape are important parameters determining the wheat profitability, being main determinants of yield and its technological quality. In this study, a segregating population of 118 recombinant inbred lines, derived from a cross between the Iranian durum landrace accession “Iran_249” and the Iranian durum cultivar “Zardak”, was used to investigate durum wheat kernel morphology factors and their relationships with kernel weight, and to map the corresponding QTLs. A high density genetic map, based on wheat 90k iSelect Infinium SNP assay, comprising 6,195 markers, was developed and used to perform the QTL analysis for kernel length and width, traits related to kernel shape and weight, and heading date, using phenotypic data from three environments. Overall, a total of 31 different QTLs and 9 QTL interactions for kernel size, and 21 different QTLs and 5 QTL interactions for kernel shape were identified. The landrace Iran_249 contributed the allele with positive effect for most of the QTLs related to kernel length and kernel weight suggesting that the landrace might have considerable potential toward enhancing the existing gene pool for grain shape and size traits and for further yield improvement in wheat. The correlation among traits and co-localization of corresponding QTLs permitted to define 11 clusters suggesting causal relationships between simplest kernel size trait, like kernel length and width, and more complex secondary trait, like kernel shape and weight related traits. Lastly, the recent release of the T. durum reference genome sequence allowed to define the physical interval of our QTL/clusters and to hypothesize novel candidate genes inspecting the gene content of the genomic regions associated to target traits.

Knowledge of the genetic diversity is important to design appropriate selection criteria in the breeding programs. In this study, the genetic diversity of 42 Iranian and European barley cultivars was investigated with morpho-agronomic traits including phenological, physiological, morphological traits, grain yield and associated traits. Analysis of variance showed high variability among cultivars. The European cultivars Panaka, Aiace and Pariglia had the highest grain yield. The results of group comparisons indicated that the European cultivars produced higher grain yield (500.57 g/m 2) than the Iranian cultivars (445.50 g/m 2), but larger genetic diversity based on morpho-agronomic traits was observed among Iranian cultivars than European cultivars. Correlation analysis revealed the high significant correlations between grain yield with biological yield (0.92), straw yield (0.77), and number of spike per square meter (0.67). Based on the factor analysis, the six factors that justified 81.63 percent of the variations were identified. The first factor having the largest eigenvalue was identified as effective factor on the vegetative and reproductive growth. In path analysis, biological yield had the greatest effect on grain yield (0.906). Cluster analysis classified the cultivars in six groups and showed that genetic variation based on the all studied traits among the barley cultivars was not related to geographical location.

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In this study, the morphometric diversity and phylogenetic relationships of Iranian honey bee populations, were investigated using 14 morphometric characteristics. A total of 2250 young adult worker bees from 20 different populations in 20 different provinces of Iran were collected during June to October 2014. The results of nested analysis of variance showed that there were significant differences (P<0.01) between the provinces for all analyzed morphometric traits indicating the existence of a diversity among them. Correlation coefficient analysis showed a high degree of association among the most of the traits. This correlation coefficient should be a putative mean to improve of certain characters in breeding of honey bee. Principal component analysis revealed three principal components explained 81.5% of the total variation. Cluster analysis using WARD method classified honey bee populations into two main groups. The first group includes the honey bees collected from North, Northwest and West portions of Iran. The second group was represented by the honey bees from Eastern North, Central and Southern regions of Iran. The phylogenetic tree based on UPGMA method divided 29 subspecies of honey bee to 5 distinct clusters. The Iranian subspecies honey bee composed of a shared clade with subspecies of Eastern Mediterranean, Near East and Eastern parts of Middle East (O branch).

Common bean (Phaseolus vulagris L.) is a nutritionally important food crop with prospective health benefits in the world. The current study was evaluated the chemical components, morphological characteristics, and genetic advance of 22 common bean cultivars/lines seeds from three commercial classes (white, red, pinto beans) adapted to different climates of Iran. The results showed significant variations among 22 common bean cultivars/lines for all studied seed traits. The commercial group comparisons showed that pinto beans were the best in terms of seed morphological characteristics but red beans were superior for seed protein percentage and zinc content. White beans had high amounts of iron, calcium and magnesium, and also presented high amounts of starch and uronic acid as anti-nutritional factors. Among the chemical components, crude fat had the highest genetic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, whereas starch percentage showed the lowest values. The genetic advance over the mean ranged from 6.73% (starch percentage) to 66.31% (100-seed weight), and high heritability was estimated for calcium content (0.99). AND1007 Line demonstrated the high seed protein, iron and zinc contents. To confirm the results, a genotype-by-trait biplot was done. These results could help to achieve a common bean cultivar with a high amount of nutritional value of seeds and appropriate seed characteristics with a low amount of anti-nutritional factors.