Diversity analysis of the developed qingke (hulless barley) cultivars representing different growing regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China using sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers

Genetic diversity among 68 accessions of the developed qingke (hulless barley) cultivars from Sichuan, Gansu, Tibet, Qinghai and Yunnan provinces of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China was evaluated by using a newly developed sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) marker system. The results showed that, 20 primer combinations produced a total of 350 clear bands with an average of 17.5 bands per primer pair, of which 153 bands (43.7%) were polymorphic. 324 allelic phenotypes were amplified with an average of 16.2 alleles per primer pair. The genetic diversity mean in Sichuan, Gansu, Tibet and Qinghai provinces was 0.6773, 0.5042, 0.7080 and 0.6816, respectively, while average genetic distance was 0.0418, 0.0657, 0.0605, 0.0921, respectively. The genetic differentiation among different regions ranged from 9.02 to 48.22% with an average of 18.77%. The 68 accessions were classified into four major groups by cluster analysis using Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA), indicating that the significant relationships between the original regions of accessions were existed. Thus, it is suggested that SRAP could be used as an effective molecular marker in researching barley genetic diversity, and also narrow genetic basis and poor genetic diversity made it imperative to search elite hulless barley germplasm for breeding superior hulless barley. Keywords: Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.), qingke (hulless barley), genetic diversity, sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP), genetic differentiation