Genetic Diversity in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Cultivars using RAPD Markers

Thirty one nationally released chickpea cultivars including one wild cultivar were analysed using RAPD markers. Percent polymorphism (%) and the average PIC value varied from 50 -100 % and 0.375-0.885, respectively. The cultivars were grouped into two distinct clusters with RAPD primers while wild cultivar remained unclustered and separate. Cluster-I grouped 20 chickpea cultivars which were further classified into 7 subclusters. Cluster-II comprised 11 genotypes which were further grouped into two subclusters. Principle component analysis (PCA) was also carried out to determine genetic relationship among the chickpea cultivars. Six clusters were formed on the basis of PCA. Wild cultivar did not cluster with any other cultivar. The genotypes grouped into clusters on the basis of RAPD analysis also showed great correlation in terms of nutritional quality as the grouped cultivars had same protein content. The large amount of genetic variation that exists between chickpea cultivars can be used efficiently for gene tagging and genome mapping of crosses to introgess favourable traits to develop new cultivars of desirable traits.