MICROSATELLITE MARKER BASED GENETIC DIVERSITY ANALYSIS AMONG THE GERMPLASM OF AN ORPHAN LEGUME YARDLONG BEAN (Vigna unguiculata L. WALP.) IN BANGLADESH

Estimation of Genetic diversity of plant materials is one of the prerequisites for breeding activities as the success of the breeding programs depends on the dimension of genetic variability. The present study was conducted with 32 genotypes of yardlong bean, including commercial variety and inbred lines using ten simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci to determine genetic divergence and molecular relatedness. A total of 32 alleles were detected among the 32 yardlong bean genotypes with an average of 3.2 alleles per locus. Overall mean polymorphism information content (PIC) and Nei gene diversity of 0.3285, and 0.3662 were found in this experiment. The SSR primer VM35 gave the highest allele frequency (0.9688) but the lowest genetic diversity and PIC. Similarity indices based cluster analysis (UPGMA) separated 32 genotypes into four different groups, one of which was further separated into sub-clusters and sub-sub clusters. It is interesting to note that three genotypes, namely BD-9833, Lal Benny, and Saba remained unclustered. The majority of genotypes were found within cluster III (90.63%). The SSR analysis resulted in the definitive separation of genotypes in a diverse manner, indicating the presence of wide variability among the genotypes, which can be used for the future breeding program.