Evaluation of genetic diversity in citrus germless using microsatellite (SSR) markers

Genetic characterization and classification of germless are very important in breeding programmers. In this study 46 Citrus genotypes of Iran were classified based on data obtained from microsatellite marker banding pattern, using the Complete Cluster analysis. In this research nine pair of SSR primers generated a total of 54 alleles. The CAC33 with 9 alleles had the highest and TAA17 with 4 alleles had the lowest number of alleles among the SSR markers employed. The number of heterozygote varieties varied from 21 in TAA27 and 43 in TAA17 loci. The highest PIC value was related to TAA15 (PIC=0.782) and the lowest was for TAA27 (PIC=0.412). Cluster analysis divided the genotypes into 3 clusters. The genotype Kc¬36 was very similar to Kc43 and both of them were grouped in the same cluster and the least similarity with other types was related to the genotype Kc41. Also (Citrus maxima), (Citrus medica) and (Citrus reticulata) were placed in three groups. Based on results obtained from this experiment, it was inferred that among the studied SSR marker employed, TAA41, CAC15, CAC19, TAA15, TAA33, CAC33 and TAA1 revealed high distinct polymorphism. From the result of this study we suggest that these markers can be used for detecting genetic variability on Citrus germplasm.