Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Indian Mustard [Brassica juncea (l.) Czern & Coss.] for High Temperature Tolerance using SSR Markers

Estimation of genetic diversity had been carried out in a set of 21 germplasm accessions of Indian mustard for high temperature toler-ance trait using SSR markers. These 21 acces-sions were comprised of 11 high temperature tolerant lines, 6 susceptible and 4 checks, which were obtained after screening of 415 accessions of Indian mustard germplasm for high tempera-ture tolerance at seedling stage. Of the 106 SSR markers evaluated, 54 resulted into amplification products of different sizes, of which 19 were found polymorphic with a total of 52 alleles, at an average of 2.74 alleles per locus. The UPGMA dendrogram revealed the presence of high level of genetic diversity among the accessions evalu-ated. The similarity coefficient ranged between 0.32 and 0.90 with a mean value of 0.61. High temperature tolerant accessions identified in this study along with the information on genetic di-versity provide some useful guides for plant breeders in selecting genetically diverse parents for the crossing program to evolve cultivars pos-sessing high temperature tolerance along with high yielding potential than the existing culti-vars.