Comparative Assessment of IRAP, REMAP, ISSR, and SSR Markers for Evaluation of Genetic Diversity of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)

The effectiveness of IRAP, REMAP, SSR, and ISSR markers were investigated to assess genetic diversity among and within eight Medicago sativa L. populations. A total of 101, 119, 117 loci and 31 alleles were amplified using 10 IRAP, 14 REMAP, 16 ISSR and eight SSR primers, respectively. IRAP markers generated the maximum proportion of polymorphic loci per primer (PPLP) while the maximum value of percentage of polymorphic loci (PPL) was observed for SSR markers. ISSR markers showed the highest value of marker index (MI). The maximum amount of expected heterozygosity (He), effective number of alleles (Ne), and Shannon’s information index was produced by SSR markers. UPGMA cluster using Nei’s genetic distance coefficients and combined data of four markers separated the populations into three major groups. Correlation coefficients among pairwise genetic and geographic distance matrices, made on the basis of all studied markers, were calculated using Mantel's test. Regression and correlation analysis between genetic distance and geographic distance showed no significant correlations (p>0.05).