Allelic Diversity of SSR Markers in Barley Landraces and Lines

Determination of genetic diversity level and relationships is the first step in exploration of crop landraces in breeding programs. In the present study, genetic diversity and relationships of 144 barley genotypes consisted of 119 landraces and 25 breeding lines were analyzed using 32 polymorphic SSR primer pairs. In total, 143 alleles with range of 2 to 12 alleles were amplified in the studied genotypes. The mean number of alleles per locus was 3.45 for breeding lines, 4.41 for landraces, and 4.47 for all the genotypes and the mean polymorphic information content (PIC) scores were 0.44, 0.53 and 0.53 for breeding lines, landraces, and all the genotypes, respectively. Nei gene diversity or expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.22 to 0.87, with an average of 0.59. Grouping of genotypes using Minimum Evolution method algorithm and Kimura 2-parameter model assigned the genotypes into eight clusters. The first three vectors in principal component analysis explained 71.77% of total molecular changes among genotypes. Grouping of genotypes using the first two vectors were consistent cluster analysis. The results revealed that SSR markers are efficient tools for genetic diversity analysis in barley germplasm collections as well as for collection and preservation strategies in gene bank.