Genetic diversity of the black gram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] gene pool as revealed by SSR markers

In this study, 520 cultivated and 14 wild accessions of black gram (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper) were assessed for diversity using 22 SSR markers. Totally, 199 alleles were detected with a mean of 9.05 alleles per locus. Wild black gram showed higher gene diversity than cultivated black gram. Gene diversity of cultivated accessions among regions was comparable, while allelic richness of South Asia was higher than that of other regions. 78.67% of the wild gene diversity presented in cultivated accessions, indicating that the domestication bottleneck effect in black gram is relatively low. Genetic distance analysis revealed that cultivated black gram was more closely related to wild black gram from South Asia than that from Southeast Asia. STRUCTURE, principal coordinate and neighbor-joining analyses consistently revealed that 534 black gram accessions were grouped into three major subpopulations. The analyses also revealed that cultivated black gram from South Asia was genetically distinct from that from West Asia. Comparison by SSR analysis with other closely related Vigna species, including mungbean, azuki bean, and rice bean, revealed that level of gene diversity of black gram is comparable to that of mungbean and rice bean but lower than that of azuki bean.