Potential and Sustainable Conservation of Wheat Genetic Resources of Southeast Anatolia Region

Southeastern Anatolia Region, the place known as fertile crescent is the center where wheat was first cultured. Karacada？ Montainis located in a triangle between Diyarbak？r, ？anl？urfa and Mardin provinces is considered one of the richest parts of the world for A and B genome donors of wheat namely Triticum boeoticum (2n= 14, AA) and Aegilops speltoides (2n= 14, BB), and also of tetraploid wild wheat Triticum dicoccoides (2n= 28, AABB). Progenitor of D genome of wheat, Aegilops tauschiioccus in Erzurum, Kars, ？anl？urfa, ？？rnak, Hakkari and Van provinces of this region. Diploid and tetraploid wheat sample found in archaeological excavation in Nevala ？ori, ？ay？nü and G？bekli Tepe indicated that this region is the first domestication area of wheat. Southeasten Turkey holds also huge biodiversity of wheat landraces such as Sorgül, Havran, Karak？l？？k, A？ure, Menceki, Beyazi that are grown in marginal area of this region. Now a days, genetic diversity in wild and landraces of wheat decreasing because of extensive agriculture activities, heavy grazing and urbanization. Basaltic stones and rocks provide a perfect shelter for wild wheat relatives. Removal of these stones and rock to open field for high yielding varieties is one of the major threats on wheat land races and wild wheat species. In-situ and ex-situ conservation as well as characterization and identification genes alleles are of vital importance. We used the data obtained from a project supported by FAO, which aimed at collecting and determining wheat land races of Turkey between 2009-2014 years. Based on the observations we summarized the significance of South East part of Turkey from the viewpoint of wheat genetic resources for food safety. Ways and means of sustainable conservation of these resources are also discussed