Molecular characterization of rice genotypes using microsatellite markers

Characterization of twenty rice genotypes using 20 SSR markers exhibited high polymorphism.The markers were distributed among 10 chromosomes of rice. A total of 101 alleles were amplified by twenty markers. An average of 5.05 alleles was produced. Average effective number of alleles was 3.77. Genetic diversity per locus for most of the selected markers was high. The primers RM12921, RM18384, RM23877, RM23744 RM257, RM25181, RM25735 and RM5479 were highly polymorphic. These microsatellites are useful in assessing the genetic diversity of rice. Cluster analysis performed by DARwin V. 5.1.153 using unweighted neighbor joining method clearly separated the genotypes into 3 main clusters with different sub-clusters within a cluster. Promising selections of parents for future hybridization program to generate desirable segregates has been suggested.