Allelic analysis and polymorphism of STMS markers
Out of 50 STMS primer pairs were used for the fingerprinting of 35 chickpea accessions, 18 primer pairs namely NCPGR 40, NCPGR 41, NCPGR 42, NCPGR 43, NCPGR 44, NCPGR 51, NCPGR 52, NCPGR 53, NCPGR 54, NCPGR 55, NCPGR 56, NCPGR 58, NCPGR 60, NCPGR 62, NCPGR 63, NCPGR 64, NCPGR 79 and NCPGR 84 were found to be monomorphic and the rest 32 primer pairs as polymorphic. The detailed statistical parameters of these 32 polymorphic STMS primers are presented in Table 3. The STMS markers used in the present investigation exhibited a high degree of polymorphism producing a total of 97 alleles with an average of 3.03 alleles per locus. Most of the 15 marker loci produced 2 alleles, followed by 9 primers produced 3 alleles, 4 primers produced 5 alleles, 2 primers produced 4 alleles and 2 primers produced 6 alleles. The range of alleles observed in our study is comparatively less than the previous reports
(Sethy et al., 2006; Chaudhary et al., 2012) where they have reported allele range 2 to 11 with an average of 6.4 alleles / loci in chickpea. However, our report is comparable to several other reports (2011;
Ghaffari et al., 2014; Katoch et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2017; Rashmi et al., 2012; Rizvi et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2011, 2012, 2013;
Soi et al., 2014).
Out of 97 alleles detected, 8 were considered as rare alleles due to their low frequency (<0.03), 23 as common (0.04-0.20) and rest 66 as frequent alleles (>0.21) (Table 3). The average polymorphic information content (PIC) value was found to be 0.502 with a range of 0.029 (NCPGR 37) and 0.768 (NCPGR 68) (Table 3). The PIC value reveals the informativeness level and accordingly is defined into high (PIC>0.5), moderate (0.5>PIC>0.25) and low (PIC<0.25) categories
(Botstein et al., 1980). In the present investigation, the STMS markers exhibited moderate to high level of informativeness with average PIC value of 0.502 and most of the STMS (53.0%) had PIC value more than 0.50.
A positive correlation was obtained (r = 0.718) between PIC and number of alleles at the STMS locus, which confirms that STMS markers used in this study were highly informative. The positive association of PIC value and allele number was also reported earlier by
Saini et al., (2004). The PIC value obtained in the present study was lower than reported by several others
(Singh et al., 2008; Ghaffari et al., 2014) but it was comparable to as reported by
href="#chaudhary_2012">Chaudhary et al., (2012). In reference to PIC value the STMS markers namely NCPGR 68, NCPGR 50, NCPGR 81, NCPGR 48 and NCPGR 77 were considered as very good markers. However, NCPGR 37 and NCPGR 49 were considered as very poor markers and the rest of the markers as moderate.
Diversity analysis on the basis of STMS markers
The genotypic data of the polymorphic STMS primers was used to study the genetic relationship among the chickpea accessions. The pairwise genetic similarity coefficients ranged from 0.22 to 0.91. The highest similarity occurred between ICC-15868
vs ICC-15888 and ICC-16269
vs ICC-16487 with a coefficient value of 91% and the lowest similarity occurred between ICC-13892
vs ICC-15610 with a coefficient value of 22%.
The dendrogram based on UPGMA clustering clearly revealed 7 distinct clusters namely A, B, C, D, E, F and G (Fig 1). Cluster A comprised 6 accessions, which were further divided into two sub-clusters
viz. A-1 and A-2. Sub-cluster A-1 consisted of three accessions ICC-13816, ICC-15697 and ICC-15610. Sub-cluster A-2 consisted of three accessions ICC-15868, ICC-15888 and ICC-15996. Cluster B consisted of only two accessions ICC-15333 and ICC-15406. Cluster C comprised 7 accessions, which were further divided into two sub-clusters
viz. C-1 and C-2. Sub-cluster C-1 consisted of three accessions ICC-13863, ICC-14098 and ICC-14199. Sub-cluster C-2 consisted of 4 accessions ICC-14077, ICC-15264, ICC-14595 and ICC-14778. Cluster D consisted of 4 accessions ICC-15510, ICC-15518, ICC-16903 and ICC-15294. Cluster E comprised 8 accessions, which were further subdivided into two sub-clusters
viz. E-1 and E-2. Sub-cluster E-1 consisted of three accessions ICC-14831, ICC-16207 and ICC-16261. Sub-cluster E-2 consisted of 4 accessions ICC-16269, ICC-16487, ICC-16524 and ICC-16915. Accession ICC-14799 was isolated at the end of cluster E. Cluster F consisted of only two accessions ICC-14815 and ICC-15606. Cluster G consisted of 6 accessions namely ICC-14402, ICC-14669, ICC-15567, ICC-15802, ICC-15612 and ICC-13892. At the end of clustering, out of 35 chickpea accessions only one accession ICC-13892 was isolated.
However, the accessions, ICC-13892, ICC-15612, ICC-15802, ICC-15567 expressed distant association with ICC-13816, ICC-15697, ICC-15610, ICC-15868, ICC-15888 and ICC-15996 revealing very high diversity in their genotypic structure. Similar results have also been reported in chickpea by
Monika et al., 2018 and
Vishnu et al., 2020. These accessions could be potentially utilized in various hybridization programmes for further genetic improvement of chickpea.
Diversity analysis based on quantitative traits
The pooled quantitative trait data (Table 4) partially published
(Kumar et al., 2013, 2014) across the seasons were used to generate a dendrogram with the help of computer software NTSYS-pc. The genetic dissimilarity coefficients for the 35 chickpea accessions based on 11 quantitative traits ranged from 0.01 to 0.578. The highest dissimilarity coefficient value (57.8%) occurred between two chickpea accessions, ICC-7272
vs ICC-15697 and the lowest dissimilarity coefficient values (1.0%.) occurred between ICC-11944
vs ICC-14799 and ICC-14595
vs ICC-14669.
The resulting dendrogram classified the 35 chickpea accessions into 7 distinct clusters namely A, B, C, D, E, F and G (Fig 2). Cluster A comprised 6 accessions, which were further subdivided into two sub-clusters
viz. A-1 and A-2. Sub-cluster A-1 consisted of three accessions ICC-13816, ICC-15697 and ICC-15610. Sub-cluster A-2 consisted of three accessions ICC-15868, ICC-15888 and ICC-15996. Cluster B consisted of only two accessions ICC-15333 and ICC-15406. Cluster C comprised 7 accessions, which were further subdivided into two sub-clusters
viz. C-1 and C-2. Sub-cluster C-1 consisted of three accessions ICC-13863, ICC-14098 and ICC-14199. Sub-cluster C-2 consisted of 4 accessions ICC-14077, ICC-15264, ICC-14595 and ICC-14778. Cluster D consisted of 5 accessions ICC-15510, ICC-15518, ICC-16903, ICC-15294 and ICC-14799. Cluster E consisted of 4 accessions ICC-14669, ICC-15567, ICC-15802 and ICC-15612. Cluster F consisted of 8 accessions, which were further subdivided into two sub-clusters
viz. F-1 and F-2. Sub-cluster F-1 consisted of three accessions ICC-14831, ICC-16207 and ICC-16261. Sub-cluster F-2 consisted of 4 accessions ICC-16269, ICC-16487, ICC-16524 and ICC-16915. Accession ICC-14402 was isolated from the cluster F. Cluster G consisted of three accessions ICC-14815, ICC-15606 and ICC-13892. At the end of clustering, out of 35 chickpea accessions only one accession ICC-13892 was isolated.
The maximum similarity coefficient value occurred between chickpea accessions, ICC-15868
vs ICC-15888 and ICC-16269
vs ICC-16487 in the tune of molecular data-based similarity index values. However, the accessions ICC-13892, ICC-14815, ICC-15606, ICC-16915 expressed distant association with ICC-13816, ICC-15697, ICC-15610, ICC-15868, ICC-15888, ICC-15996 revealing high degree of diversity in phenotypic expressions.