Diversity analysis in selected Indian soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] using morphological and SSR markers.

The genetic diversity level of forty five soybean accessions were assessed using 22 morphological traits and 11 SSR primers. The morphological traits and SSR marker used in the present study grouped the soybean accessions into 6 and 14 clusters correspondingly. The morphological diversity between CODE 34 and TS 99-128 (similarity level 13%) was maximum while constructing the UPGMA based Dendrogram. Among these different clusters, the cluster III (MAUS61-2 and TNAU20052) and cluster VI (IC 10755 and Himso 1563) contained the minimum number of accessions indicating that these genotypes show maximum variability. The Simple sequence repeat analysis generated 48 polymorphic alleles from 11 SSR primes. The average number of SSR alleles generated was 4.45 per primer and the level of polymorphism was 97.95%. The SSR primer Satt253 was highly informative with the PIC value of 0.909. The SSR marker data indicates the existence of a wide genetic diversity among the soybean accessions as compare to the morphological data. Soybean accessions were grouped into fourteen clusters based on SSR allele. Four accessions (NRC55, NRC43, NRC34 & IC10755) released from Indore, three accessions (TNAU20056, TNAU20048 & TNAU20037) released from Coimbatore and two accessions (SL525 & SL295) released from Ludhiana were grouped into a single cluster (Cluster III). Thirteen SSR alleles were found to be significantly associated with 8 morphological traits. SSR alleles viz., Satt331.1.2, Satt371.5, Satt367.3 and Satt212.1 for pubescent density and SSR alleles Satt253.3 and Satt331.1.3.4.5 for number of pod per cluster. These markers will be useful for marker-assisted selection programs in soybean.