Assessment of Genetic Diversity among Indian Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Accessions using RAPD, ISSR and SSR Markers

Three types of molecular markers RAPD, ISSR and SSR were used to study patterns of genetic variation among the 44 commercially cultivated sesame accessions representing different regions of the India. A high level of polymorphism was found with both RAPD and ISSR markers and the mean polymorphism information (PICs) content values were 0.130 and 0.675 for RAPD and ISSR markers respectively. In RAPD analyses, 120 out of 279 bands (43.01%) were polymorphic. The number of alleles ranged from 5 to 19 per primer with an average of 9.96 per primer. In ISSR analyses, a total of 183 alleles were detected among which 164 alleles (89.61%) were polymorphic. The number of alleles per primer ranged from 2 to 15 with an average of 7.32 alleles per ISSR primer. In addition, 12 selected SSR primers generated 41 amplified bands. The fragment size varied from 155 to 371 bp. Expected heterozygosity and PIC ranged from 0.430 to 0.780 and 0.404 to 0.740 respectively. A poor correlation (r = 0.107) was found between both sets of genetic similarity data, suggesting that both sets of markers revealed unrelated estimates of genetic relationships. Cluster analyses indicated that all 44 sesame accessions could be distinguished by RAPD, ISSR and SSR markers. The established RAPD, ISSR, and SSR markers would explore for further diversity analyses among a large commercially available of Indian sesame. Moreover, existence of genetic variability among the 44 commercially cultivated sesame accessions would be useful for mapping qualitative and quantitative trait, marker-assisted selection and a good starting point of sesame crop improvement programs in India.