Genetic Diversity in Barley Genotypes: II. Microsatellite Markers and Morphological Traits

The first step in a plant breeding program, is to evaluate genetic variation in the plant germplasm. In order to study the genetic diversity among barley genotypes, 64 genotypes provided by the Seed and Plant Improvement Institue, Karaj, Iran were assessed using 14 SSR markers. The obtained 128 alleles, had 1 to 17 polymorphic alleles in each locus and 81 polymorph alleles were obtained. Average number of alleles in all of locus were 9.14. Average number alleles in plant in all of locus showed 2.0. Calculated PIC coefficient (Polymorphism Information Content) based on the scored bands ranged from 0.49 to 0.89. Some of the markers showed association with one or more morphological characteristics. Results showed that microsatellite markers could reveal high polymorphism and therefore are helpful for fingerprinting, clustering and marker assisted selection.