# Effect of Chromosomal Localization of NGS-Based Markers on Their Applicability for Analyzing Genetic Variation and Population Structure of Hexaploid Triticale

## TL;DR

This study examines how using chromosome-specific DNA markers improves the analysis of genetic variation and population structure in hexaploid triticale.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that chromosomal localization of markers enhances genetic structure analysis in triticale.

## Key findings

- SNP markers showed higher genetic distance correlations on specific chromosomes compared to silicoDArT markers.
- Bayesian analysis revealed a more complex population structure using SNPs than silicoDArTs.
- Linkage disequilibrium varied significantly across different triticale chromosomes.

## Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether using DNA-based markers assigned to individual chromosomes would detect the genetic structures of 446 winter triticale forms originating from two breeding companies more effectively than using the entire pool of markers. After filtering for quality control parameters, 6380 codominant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) markers and 17,490 dominant diversity array technology (silicoDArT) markers were considered for analysis. The mean polymorphic information content (PIC) values varied depending on the chromosomes and ranged from 0.30 (2R) to 0.43 (7A) for the SNPs and from 0.28 (2A) to 0.35 (6R) for the silicoDArTs. The highest correlation of genetic distance (GD) matrices based on SNP markers was observed among the 5B–5R (0.642), 5B–7B (0.626), and 5A–5R (0.605) chromosomes. When silicoDArTs were used for the analysis, the strongest correlations were found between 5B–5R (0.732) and 2B–5B (0.718). A Bayesian analysis showed that SNPs (total marker pool) allowed for the identification of a more complex structure (K = 4, ΔK = 2460.2) than the analysis based on silicoDArTs (K = 2, ΔK = 128). Triticale lines formed into groups, ranging from two (most of the chromosomes) to four (7A) groups depending on the analyzed chromosome when SNP markers were used for analysis. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) varied among individual chromosomes, ranging from 0.031 for 1A to 0.228 for 7R.