Assessment of genetic diversity among some Kabuli type chickpea genotypes using ISSR markers

Chickpea is the most important pulse crop in Iran. Since Iran is a part of the diversification center of chickpea, study of its genetic diversity is considerable. In order to assessment of genetic diversity of Kabuli chickpea genotypes, 81 Kabuli chickpea genotypes originated from ICARDA, Turkey and Iran were sown in the research field of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in 2014-2015 growing season. Nine ISSR primer was used to detect molecular polymorphisms among the genotypes and 79 polymorphic bands yielded from mentioned premiers. Number of effective allele varied from 1.19 (primer (CAC)5AG) to 1.69 (primer (ACTG)4). Means of Nei’s genetic diversity and Shannon’s index for all studied genotypes were 0.24 and 0.38 respectively. Nei’s genetic diversity for ICARDA, Turkey and Iran originated populations were 0.27, 0.2 and 0.2, respectively. Shannon’s index was calculated for each population as well, which were 0.44, 0.32 and 0.3, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance determined significant difference between the populations. However, only 10% of total variance accounted between populations. The result of cluster analysis divided the genotypes to four separated groups that was different from the primary regional grouping. Cluster analysis generally confirm that most of genetic variation found within the studied population as well. The population analysis using STRUCTURE software separated the population into four groups with 14, 5, 8 and 4 genotypes respectively. The rest of genotypes (51) were identified as mixed genotypes. The results of this study determined a wide genetic diversity between studied chickpea genotypes could be used for future breeding programs.