Characterization and genetic diversity analysis of cotton cultivars using microsatellites

Genetic diversity and the relationship between varieties are of great importance for cotton breeding. Our work was designed to estimate the informativeness of the cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) simple sequence repeat (SSR) microsatellite locus and to estimate the genetic distance between 53 cotton cultivars as well as to select a set of SSR primers able to differentiate between the 53 cotton cultivars studied. After extracting DNA from the 53 cultivars and characterized it using 31 pairs of SSR primers we obtained a total of 66 alleles with an average of 2.13 alleles per SSR locus and values of polymorphism information content (PIC) varying from 0.18 to 0.62, the dissimilarity coefficient varying from zero to 0.41. Statistical analysis using the unweighted pair-group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA) revealed seven subgroups which were consistent with the genealogical information available for some of the cultivars. The SSR genetic profile obtained for each of the cultivars made it possible to discriminate 52 of the 53 cultivars. This study of the genetic diversity of cotton cultivars with SSR markers support the need to introduce new alleles into the gene pool of the breeding cultivars.