Genetic Diversity of Maize (Zea mays L.) Genotypes Assessed by SSR Markers under Temperate Conditions

Genetic Diversity of Maize (Zea mays L.) Genotypes Assessed by SSR Markers under Temperate Conditions

A set of twenty four maize lines comprising fifteen drought promising inbred lines, four drought susceptible inbred lines and five drought tolerant checks were analyzed for molecular characterization. These inbred lines belong to AICRP (All India Co-ordinated Research Programme) Maize Srinagar Centre and the checks were selected from CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre) material.. Molecular characterization was done using a set of 45 SSR markers having genome wide coverage. The marker data was analyzed using Power Marker Software (Version 3.25). The markers detected a total of 271 alleles with an average of 8.46 alleles per locus in twenty four maize lines. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.56 and 0.89 with a mean of 0.78. The level of heterozygosity in the inbred panel was significantly low. The mean value of heterozygosity was 0.05 implying that most of the loci attained homozygosity. Dendrogram derived from UPGMA cluster analysis showed presence of two major clusters, one of which had many subgroups. Phenotyping of these inbreds was done by using morphological, maturity, physiological, yield and yield attributing traits. Genotyping data complemented by phenotyping data would be used to identify a number of pairwise combinations for the development of mapping populations for drought tolerance related traits and potential heterotic pairs for the development of drought tolerant hybrids...