Molecular characterization using SSR markers in 50 shrub pea genotypes (Pisum sativum L.) from the GRICAND Collection, Colombia

Abstract

The pea (Pisum sativum L.) is one of the more important legume crops produced globally. We studied the structure and genetic diversity in a collection of 50 pea accessions with 16 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, whose average polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.62. The SSR markers amplified a total of 28 alleles with an average of 4 alleles per locus, with locus AB71 and D21 amplifying the largest number of alleles (6). The observed heterozygosity (Ho) was 0.09±0.08 and the expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.42, indicating an elevated level of inbreeding (Fis = 0.60). The genetic relationships were inferred with a similarity index (DICE) and a bayesian analysis (STRUCTURE), detecting 2 clusters for the genotypes, with a high similarity of the morphological characteristics of each genotype. The results of this study will be useful for the creation of future breeding programs.