Characterization of junegrass (Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb.) Schult.) collected from KOP region in Central Anatolia

Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb.) Schult.) is a cool-season wheatgrass fodder plant whose vegetative form grows during early spring in the rangelands of Turkey. Due to their natural growth in dry pastures, especially in sheep grazing meadows, it has shown great potential to support the breeding of pastures in these rangelands. For this study, junegrass seeds have been collected from 47 different locations of the KOP region in 2015. In 2017 and 2018, an experiment was conducted in the greenhouse of the Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, where collected seeds were grown. Leaf length, leaf width, leaf color, the number of the tiller, bunch diameter, and hay yield of all the experimental genotypes were determined as part of the morphological parameters. The KC-17 population had the maximum leaf length of 11.87 cm whereas the KC-43 population had the maximum leaf width (i.e. 2.60 mm). In the molecular part, the genetic distance amongst populations according to the ISSR based dendrogram was between 0.61 and 0.87. It was determined that the KC-1 and KC-2 populations showed a large genetic similarity. The KC-18 and FR populations were connected externally to the dendrograms and were found to have a closer genetic relationship with the KC-45 population. When comparing the morphological and molecular dendrograms, there was a clear difference between the two. The results obtained from this preliminary study on phenotypic and molecular characterization of junegrass genotypes are beneficial for the further improvement of the species as an important forage crop for Turkish rangelands.