Genetic diversity of eight millet genera assessed by using molecular and morphological markers

Zdislava Dvořáková, Petra Hlásná Čepková, Iva Viehmannová*, Lenka Havlicková, Dagmar Janovská

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this study, the genetic diversity and relationships among eight millet genera were investigated by molecular and morphological data analyses. Sixty-nine millet accessions were analysed by using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, and evaluated for morphological traits. Eight AFLP primer pairs were amplified successfully and 779 bands were scored for all accessions, with a high level of polymorphism detected. Nei's genetic distance among all accessions varied from 0.0123 to 0.4246 and the Shannon's index was estimated at 0.9708. The neighbour joining tree, using the unweighted neighbour-joining method and Dice's dissimilarity coefficient, was constructed. The AFLP markers revealed the close relatedness between the Eragrostis and Panicum genera, whereas the greatest distance was found the Pennisetum and Echinochloa genera. Cluster analysis based on the AFLP profiles revealed that the majority of accessions of a given millet genus tend to group together. Clustering from morphological data allocated individuals into three main clusters with high variation. The genetic variability found between the analysed accessions was weakly negatively correlated (r = -0.074) with their morphological attributes. However, high molecular and morphological variability indicated that this collection includes rich and valuable plant materials for millet breeding.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)181-192
Number of pages12
JournalCrop and Pasture Science
Volume67
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Feb 2016

Keywords

  • Millet species
  • Morphological traits
  • Relatedness

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