Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ALLELIC DIVERSITY FOR KERNEL CAROTENOIDS IN SHORT DURATION INBRED LINES OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.)

Chandana Behera, Narendra Kumar Singh, E. Lamalakshmi Devi, Mamta Singh and Anupama Singh

Abstract

In the present investigation, 25 lines were analysed for allelic diversity using 15 carotenoids specific simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers including gene targeted marker y1 SSR. All the markers were found to be polymorphic thus able to differentiate different genotypes a total of 52 alleles were detected across the 15 polymorphic loci with an average of 3.4 alleles per locus. Polymorphic information content (PIC), a measure of diversity analysis, ranged from 0.51 (umc 2115, umc 1403 and umc1447) to 0.77 (y1SSR). Jaccard’s similarity coefficient was found to vary from 0.40 to 0.96. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) dendrogram generated using Jaccard’s similarity coefficients of SSR marker data divided 25 genotypes into four broad groups. Each groups were further sub-divided into seven clusters. Carotenoids allele specific diversity did not corroborate with quantitative estimates of kernel carotenoids.