Phenetic analysis of Trifolium resupinatum L. (Persian clover) and Trifolium fragiferum L. (strawberry clover) using new microsatellite loci

Trifolium resupinatum and T. fragiferum are two important crop species among the legumes. T. fragiferum is considered as one of the gene pools of T. resupinatum. In this study, the transferability of SSR markers from T. pratense and T. repens to genotypes of these two species was evaluated and new microsatellite loci for these species were obtained. Their genomic similarity was studied using the SSR markers and phenetic analysis. The results of this study indicated a high level of transferability and polymorphism for microsatellites from T. pratense and T. repens to genotype of T. resupinatum and T. fragiferum. Studies also showed that the genetic diversity was high among the populations and the studied populations were grouped in the low levels of similarity. Also, T. resupinatum and T. fragiferum were grouped in clusters with very low similarity that indicated genomic differences between them in tested SSR loci. This study showed that microsatellites can be useful tools to evaluate genetic variation in these species. The results suggested that as long as specific SSR primers for these two species were not designed, SSR primers of T. pratense and T. repens could be used with high reliability for genomic analysis of these species.