Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Cultivars using Microsatellite Markers

Determining the level of genetic diversity and relationships among genotypes is foundation for identifying the appropriate parents in different breeding objects. In present study, the genetic diversity of 22 wheat cultivars were tested using 22 pairs of SSR primers. Out of 24 detected alleles, 11 were able to show desirable polymorphism. In average 2.18 alleles per locus were generated, in which differed from 2 to 3 alleles in each locus. The average of 0.573 polymorphism information content were achieved that Xgwm60 for having high content of polymorphism, was the most appropriate marker for studying genetic diversity in this study. Similarity coefficient was formed with Dice similarity matrix and genotypes were classified into 4 groups. Principal component analysis confirms most of genetic diversity feature derived from cluster analysis. Results of current study showed the vast range of genetic diversity among wheat cultivars that illustrating their possible use in breeding programs.