Geographical patterns of genetic diversity in cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) characterized by amplified fragment length polymorphism

The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic relationships of 28 chickpea accessions from diverse origin using AFLP markers. On average, 13 polymorphic bands per primer were observed in AFLP analysis. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.71, ranging from 0.48 to 0.92. The lowest and the highest PIC value were recorded for primer P-GAG/M-GC and P-AT/M-GC, respectively. The average GD, based on Fst values among the 21 accessions was 0.42, ranging from 0.61 to 0.16. From the UPGMA dendrogram, it is discernible that material taken for the analysis can be divided in four clusters. The results indicate that the greatest genetic diversity occurs in Afghanistan, Iran and Lebanon. In many cases, the diversity between individuals of an accession is as great as between individuals of different accessions. Based on DNA markers it is concluded that there are three centers of diversity for chickpea: Pakistan-Afghanistan, Iran-Turkey and Syria-Lebanon. India and Ethiopia, which were previously considered as a secondary center of diversity for chickpea, showed lower diversity than the above regions.