Genetic diversity in a minicore collection of Cicer accessions using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)

This study was undertaken to establish the relationships among 44 chickpea (Cicer) accessions from a minicore collection including 30 cultivars, seven landraces from C. arietinum and seven accessions from C. reticulatum, C. echinospermum, and C. oxyodon species, all with economically important traits and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, by using six amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) primer combinations. The reaction products were resolved on MetaPhor agarose gel. A total of 64 clear and reproducible AFLP markers were recorded. Mean of polymorphism information content (PIC) values were calculated for each primer pair which ranged from 0.155 (EcoRI-ACC/MseI-CAG) to 0.270 (EcoRI-ACC/ MseI-CTG) with an average of 0.237. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that 90% of the total variance was due to differences within populations and 10% due to differences among populations. The results showed that the studied minicore collection is highly variable and could be used as the fundamental base in chickpea breeding programs.