Genetic relatedness among weevil resistant Medicago species and Indian susceptible cultivars of lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) using SSR and RAPD markers

Abstract

Fifty-two species of genus Medicago were screened against lucerne weevil (Hypera postica Gyll.) and accessions belonging to five species viz,. M. laciniata, M. muricoleptis, M. rugosa, M. tenoreana and M. scutellata were identified as potential resistance source. Genetic relatedness using SSR and RAPD markers of these species were estimated along with five Indian weevil susceptible cultivars namely Anand 2, LLC 3, RL 88, T 9 and CO 1. Both SSR and RAPD based dendrograms revealed grouping of all five Indian cultivars into one cluster. Moreover, RAPD based dendrogram indicated subgrouping of M. scutellata accession with Indian cultivars. Both data sets showed more closeness of M. scutellata and M. muricoleptis with Indian cultivars as genetic distance between these species were comparable over other suggesting use of such species for improvement of Indian cultivars of lucerne for weevil resistance.