Knowledge about genetic diversity is one of the most important principals for breeding wheat programs. In the present study, the genetic diversity in a set of durum wheat genotypes (86 samples) was investigated using several agronomic traits and fourteen CAAT-box derived polymorphism (CBDP) markers. Based on the obtained results, considerable variability in plant height, thousand-kernel weight, and grain yield was found across two growing seasons. Using the factor analysis and ideotype-design best linear unbiased predictor (FAI-BLUP) index and the multi-trait stability index (MTSI), three genotypes G2, G4, and G64 were selected as desirable genotypes in terms of all measured traits. In the molecular analysis, the used markers indicated clear amplifcation across investigated durum wheat genotypes with a percent polymorphism of 100%, and all CBDP primers amplifed 93 polymorphic fragments. Mean values of resolving power (Rp), polymorphic information content (PIC), and marker index (MI) were 4.07, 0.32, and 2.21, respectively. The results obtained from cluster and principal coordinate analyses indicated similar grouping patterns, and so that all investigated durum wheat genotypes were classifed into three clear clusters, while the structure analysis grouped all genotypes into four groups. Based on the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), the genetic variance within explored sub-populations was greater than between them (62% vs. 38%). Furthermore, the highest values of the number of efective alleles (Ne), Shannon’s information index (I), percentage of polymorphism loci (PPL), and Nei’s gene diversity (He) were estimated for sub-populations Pop-1 and Pop-4. Our results provide a piece of evidence for an acceptable potential of CBDP markers for further integration into marker-assisted selection
