Genetic Variation in Iranian Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. Kabuli Type) Based on Agronomic Traits and RAPD Marker

One hundres five accessions of Kabuli type chickpea received from National Plant Gene Bank of Iran, Karaj, with five check cultivars (Arman, Jam, Hashem, Bivanij and ILC- 482) were grown on the basis of augment design during 2006 and 2007 in research field of College of Agriculture, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. Based on ANOVA, coefficient of variations for chickpea seed yield, number of primary branches and harvest index were 22.89, 22.2 and 19.49, respectively. Correlation analysis indicated positive and significant correlation between seed yield with harvest index and canopy width. Factor analysis identified six factors, accounting 75.82 % of total variations. In RAPD analysis with 26 random primers, 564 bands were amplified that 321 of them were polymorph. N number of polymorphic bands ranged from 15 to 28 per primer and t he most informative loci was D12. Polymorphic information content (PIC value) ranged from 0.09 to 0.66 and marker index (MI) ranged from 5.26 to 41.27 per primer. A maximum genetic similarity value of 0.97 was observed between accessions No. 85 and 86 and a minimum similarity value of 0.68 between accession No. 20 and ILC-482. Clustering analysis classified the chickpea accessions and cultivars in to 10 major groups and the number of the subgroups were strongly supported by high bootstrap value. The results showed that RAPD molecular marker can reveal relatively acceptable polymorphism and genetic variation detected in this study can be useful for enhancing the genetic base of breeding programs.