Dynamics of genetic diversity in winter common wheat Triticum aestivum L. cultivars released in Russia from 1929 to 2005

Genealogical analysis was used to study the dynamics of genetic diversity in Russian cultivars of winter common wheat from 1929 to 2005. The Shannon diversity index of the total set of released cultivars remained almost unchanged, although the number of original ancestors (landraces and genetic lines) increased almost tenfold in the period under study. This was explained in terms of the dependence of the modified Shannon diversity index on two parameters, the number of original ancestors and the mean coefficient of parentage. Significant direct effects were revealed: a positive effect of the former parameter and a negative of the latter. As a result, the increase in the number of original ancestors was compensated by the increase in relatedness of cultivars. Genetic erosion of released diversity was observed, as a half of Russian landraces were lost. Although the mean coefficient of parentage did not reach its critical value $(\bar R = 0.25)$ , cultivars of some regions (Central and Volga-Vyatka) proved to be closely related. A favorable gradual decrease in the mean coefficient of parentage was observed in the past 15 years. A set of modern winter wheat cultivars, which were introduced in the Russian Official List from 2002 to 2005, displayed a cluster structure. The overwhelming majority of cultivars formed two clusters originating from Bezostaya 1 (67% of cultivars) and Mironovskaya 808 (31%).