Assessment of Genetic Diversity among Chickpea Genotypes using RAPD, Protein Profiling and Isozyme Markers

The genetic diversity and similarity were investigated in 24 chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes using dominant markers viz. RAPD, protein profiling and isozymes markers. Total 118 amplicons were produced by fourteen RAPD marker, of which 90 (76.27%) were found polymorphic. Leaf protein profiling of genotypes had produced 9 (45%) polymorphic bands across the set. Three different isozymes viz. esterase, peroxidase and acid phosphatase were studied, of which only the esterase isozyme was found polymorphic (55.55%). Total 154 scorable bands were generated using 18 different markers, out of which 112 bands were observed to be polymorphic (72.73%). Highest polymorphism was seen with RAPD primers, while it was least with the isozymes. Based on the jaccard's similarity coefficient, the similarity index was observed in the range of 0.6222 to 0.9427 among 24 chickpea genotypes. The lowest genetic similarity was observed between BGT-300 and ACP 417. The dendrogram of chickpea genotypes showed two major clusters. The genotypes Godra nazir, Bavsar and BGT 300 were grouped in one cluster. It was found that the Desi and Kabuli types did not segregate into two distinct groups.