Assessment of genetic diversity among the selected genotypes of soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) by using SSR markers

An experiment was conducted to assess the genetic diversity in soybean using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) diversity of 24 elite soybean genotypes were selected for high yield potential. The four primers showed reliable polymorphism produced a total of 92 bands of which 68 (75%) were polymorphic. Genetic similarity estimates based on simple matching coefficients revealed more genetic diversity among all the 24 elite lines, ranging from 0.143 to 1 indicating the distinctness of these genotypes under study. The dendrogram constructed using the UPGMA method separated these genotypes in two main groups each having two sub groups. The study also demonstrates high reliability, ease of applicability and importance of SSR markers in evaluating genetic variation among the genotypes of soybean.