Phylogenetics and diversity analysis of Pennisetum species using Hemarthria EST-SSR markers

Expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers are widely applied in plant molecular genetics studies due to their abundance in the genome, codominant nature, and high repeatability. To study the genetic diversity of 35 accessions and transferability of EST-SSR markers in cross-species applications, 21 primer pairs previously developed in Hemarthria were amplified across Pennisetum species. A total of 148 polymorphisms were generated with an average of 7.05 bands per locus. The mean values of the genetic parameters polymorphism information content, number of bands, effective number of bands, Nei's gene diversity, and Shannon's information index were 0.8430, 2.0000, 1.7640, 0.4247 and 0.6132, respectively. Cluster analysis of 35 accessions divided them into three clusters, which were consistent with dendrograms of 14 species. The among-population component explained most of the genetic diversity (66%); the remaining variation (34%) occurred within populations. This study will provide more available EST-SSR markers for Pennisetum species, and facilitate studies on germplasm collection and utilization of Pennisetum species.