Assessment of Agro-Morphological Variability in a Durum Wheat Collection Maintained in the Moroccan Gene Bank

Durum wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in Morocco. The development high-yielding varieties durum major goals breeding programs Crop genetic diversity should play an essential role this context. objective study was to assess variation among 280 accessions conserved at Moroccan Gene Bank by using twelve agro-morphological characters. All are planted field conditions and arranged augmented design. results showed a large variability accessions. Analysis variance demonstrated significant highly differentiation between for traits. number plants emergence stage, biomass plant flowering chlorophyll content, spikes high advance coupled with heritability (broad sense). Moreover, coefficients correlation were revealed characters offering possibility direct or indirect selection. first two axes principal component analysis explained 45% total that landraces North American cultivars shared similar morphological However, have shown better agronomic This be utilized as gene pool improvement develop novel productivity best quality.