Simple sequence repeats to identify true hybrids in bacterial wilt susceptible X resistant crosses in groundnut

Bacterial wilt of groundnut is a devastating disease in China and Southeast Asia. Planting resistant cultivars is considered the most effective for disease management. Transfer of resistance to high yielding adapted groundnut cultivars is urgently needed. Identification of true hybrids in susceptible x resistant crosses is a must as it is of relevance to resistance genetics and breeding. In this study, simple sequence repeat primers coupled with DNA template prepared from 3–5 mg cotyledonary tissue and a 30 min fast silver-staining procedure were successfully utilized to discriminate true hybrids from selfs in 24 cross combinations. 144 (33.41%) out of 431 seeds were identified as hybrids, with percentage of hybrids ranging from 8.33%-100%.