Little is known about the genetic diversity of pale flax (Linum bienne Mill.), the wild progenitor of cultivated flax (L. usitatissimum L.), and ex situ germplasm of pale flax was scarce. Effort was made to collect 34 pale flax accessions and five landrace accessions of cultivated flax in Turkey. The inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) technique was applied to characterize this set of flax germplasm, along with one Turkish cultivar, one Russian cultivar, five winter and four dehiscent type accessions of cultivated flax. Twenty-four ISSR primer pairs detected a total of 311 DNA fragments, of which 298 bands were polymorphic across 493 flax samples (roughly 10 samples per accession). These polymorphic bands had frequencies ranging from 0.002 to 0.998 and averaging 0.38. Accession-specific ISSR variation (Fst values) ranged from 0.469 to 0.514 and averaged 0.493. There was 49.3% ISSR variation resided among these 50 accessions, 35.9% harbored among landrace, winter, dehiscent types of cultivated flax and pale flax, and 38.2% present among 34 pale flax accessions. Pale flax displayed more ISSR variation than landraces and dehiscent type, but less than winter type, of cultivated flax. Clustering 493 individual plants revealed that these assayed plants were largely grouped according to their plant types and that pale flax was genetically more close to the dehiscent type, followed by the winter type and landrace, of cultivated flax. Pale flax collected within the geographic range of 180 km displayed a significant spatial genetic autocorrelation. Genetic distances among the pale flax accessions were significantly associated with their geographic distances and elevation differences. These findings are significant for understanding flax domestication and its primary gene pool.

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The diversity of pale flax (Linum bienne Mill.) as the progenitor of cultivated flax (L. usitatissimum L.) has not been well documented and the domestication syndromes in cultivated flax are poorly understood. An attempt was made to characterize 34 pale flax accessions and six cultivated flax accessions collected during 2007 summer in Turkey. A total of 12 quantitative and 7 qualitative characters covering vegetative and generative plant parts, including phenological traits, were assessed. The occurrence of yellow anthers well known in cultivated flax is reported for the first time in pale flax. Pale flax displayed larger variation in vegetative plant parts and growth habit than the cultivated flax and more heterogeneity within accessions. Within pale flax, a higher degree of variation was observed in many generative parts such as the flower characters than in the capsule and seed characters. Based on the assayed characters, the pale flax from Turkey was grouped into three clusters and these clusters were associated with site elevation and longitude, further confirming local genetic differentiation in pale flax from Turkey. These findings are significant for further studies of flax domestication history and useful for further exploitation of wild flax in genetic improvement of cultivated flax.

Can. Ent. 122: 825-835 (1990) The black fly species Simulium luggeri Nicholson and Mickel s.l., S. vittatum Zetterstedt s.l., S. venustum Say s.l., S. verecundum Stone and Jamnback s.l., and S. decorum Walker s.1. were collected in silhouette traps near Prince Albert, Sask., in 1986, and near Choiceland, Sask., from 1986 to 1988. The Prince Albert site was located between and within 2 km of the North and South branches of the Saskatchewan River and was 25 and 60 km south of the Whitefox River and Torch River systems. The Cboiceland site, 60 km east of the Prince Albert site, was 15 km north of the main branch of the Saskatchewan River and 112 and 25 km south of the Whitefox River and Torch River, respectively. Simulium luggeri was the most abundant species collected at the Prince Albert site whereas S. luggeri, S. vittatum, and the S. venustumlverecundurn complex were approximately equally abundant in trap catches near Choiceland over the entire season but in each study year a seasonal progression in peak abundance occurred. Black fly numbers in sweep net collections taken once, in the middle of the day, were weakly correlated with numbers in silhouette trap collections taken during an entire day. Mason, P.G., et P.M. Kusters. 1990. L'activitk saison~kre des mouches noires femelles (Diptera:Simulidae) aux piturages du sud-est de la Saskatchewan. Can. Ent. 122: 825-835.