Genetic diversity studies in Indian germplasm of pea (Pisum sativum L.) using morphological and microsatellite markers

Forty seven garden pea genotypes were characterized using thirty four pea specific microsatellite markers. Mean square values were highly significant for all the characters. Nearly 75% of the total variation was contributed by 3 traits viz. green pod yield per plant (43.18), plant height (20.91) and number of nodes per plant (10.27). 28 polymorphic SSR markers were used. Average PIC value was 0.55. NTSYS clustering based on UPGMA grouped the genotypes into two major groups I and II (dwarf and tall, respectively). The larger group consisted of 43 genotypes (subgroups I-VII) and smaller group had 3 genotypes (subgroup VIII). One genotype (PMR-19) separated from other genotypes. The dendrogram depicted overall similarity coefficient ranged from 0.59 to 0.89. The lowest genetic similarity (0.39) was observed between major group I and major group II. Maximum genetic similarity (0.89) was found between two pairs i.e. PB-89 and C-96 (first pair) and Angoori and GS-10 (second pair). Neighbor joining tree thus obtained highly corresponds to the clustering observed using NTSYS indicating that the analysis was reliable. The findings of the present study can be used to select diverse genotypes to be used as parents of crosses aimed for breeding improved pea cultivars