Molecular Diversity Assessment in Selected Accessions of White Seeded Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) using SSR Markers

Fifty sesame accessions with 10 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used for their molecular characterization and assessment of genetic diversity. It was observed through this study that the accessions have enough genetic variability at molecular levels. Thirty five alleles with mean polymorphism information content of 0.42 resulted from the molecular studies very explicitly indicate the superiority of SSR primers in assessment of genetic diversity. These primer bands size varied from 200 to 400 bp. The number of alleles per locus in selected accessions varied from 3 to 6 and heterozygosity per primer ranged from 0.00 to 0.40. The pair wise genetic similarity varied from 0.44 to 0.86. A closure view of dendrogram identified two major clusters, indicating high genetic resemblance among sesame accessions. Hence, under the study here, diversity assessment through SSR markers was proved to be stronger tools for discriminating Sesamum indicum accessions.