Abstract:

Seven primer combinations were used for AFLP analysis. The fingerprints of 36 wild close relatives of barley in Tibet of China and 4 cultivated varieties of barley had been obtained, bringing about 227 discernable bands. Among the bands 194 were polymorphic with the percentage of 85.46%, indicating that the materials in the test have abundant genetic diversity. The genetic distance (Euclidean Distance) of samples computed by SPSS is between 2.646 and 10.488. Applying Ward’s method to cluster the AFLP data results, an AFLP dendrogram of 40 barley materials was then established. All samples were clustered into 5 groups, further revealing the similarity, complicacy of the genetic background and the relationship of phylogenesis of the barley materials tested. Consulting the genetic identity it was shown that six-rowed wild close barley is closer to cultivated barley than two-rowed wild close barley. This result supported the viewpoint that the six-rowed wild close barley was the intermediate type in the evolutionary route from the tow-rowed wild close barley to the cultivated bar-ley.