M. A. PATEL, R. A. GAMI*, KAPIL K. TIWARI, K. G. KUGASHIYA, R. N. Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, CPCA, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat), India
Centre for Millets Research, S. D. Agricultural University, Deesa-385 535 (Gujarat), India
Institute of Biotechnology, SKUAST-Jammu, India
Potato Research Station, S. D. Agricultural University, Deesa-385 535 (Gujarat), India
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, CPCA, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar (Gujarat), India *(e-mail: ramangami@gmail.com)
(Received : 12 September 2024; Accepted : 25 September 2024)
SUMMARY
The present investigation was carried out to find the diverse genotypes by using D2 statistics and SSR markers. The field-level experiment was laid out in randomized block design with thirty-five genotypes during Kharif-2021 at Centre for Millets Research, Deesa. The genotype where grouped into thirteen clusters based on Mahalanobis D2-statistics. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster XII and XIII (27.19), thus genotypes included in these clusters may be utilized under an inter-varietal hybridization programme for forage yield improvement. In case of molecular diversity analysis, the number of alleles for SSR primers ranged from two to four with an average number of alleles per locus was 2.73. The similarity coefficients among all the 35 genotypes ranged from 0.05 to 1.00. The clustering pattern of dendrogram generated by pooled molecular data of seventeen SSR loci generated two clusters viz., A and B at a similarity coefficient of 0.56 and cluster A is subdivided into sub clusters A1 (A1:1 and A1:2) and A2 (A2:1 and A2:2), while cluster B subdivided into sub cluster B1 and B2. The combined results for morphological and molecular diversity (using SSR markers) estimates that genotype “Gundari” was distinct from other genotypes and can be exploited to harness their unique features in breeding programmes.
Key words: Forage sorghum, genetic diversity, molecular diversity