Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Relationship of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Germplasm Based on Microsatellite Markers

Genetic diversity in 15 garlic genotypes were analyzed by using eight microsatellite markers. The number of SSR fragments generated per primer set ranged from 1 to 7 with fragment sizes varying from 160-1020 bp. A total of 22 bands were obtained by gel analysis out of which 19 were polymorphic and 03 bands were monomorphic, thus generated 86.36% polymorphism. All cultivars were clearly differentiated by their SSR finger prints. The Jaccard similarity indices (J) based on SSR pro files were subjected to UPGMA cluster analysis. The dendrogram generated by SSR markers revealed two major groups, indicating that genotypes collected from different geographical regions in different clusters and cultivars collected from different locations in one cluster. Some correspondence between the molecular grouping and geographical regions were also observed in the present study.