Transferability of sponge gourd EST-SSR markers for genetic diversity assessment of Luffa species

Genetic diversity was studied in 47 Luffa genotypes with 17 EST-SSR primers, which generated 34 alleles, ranging 1–2 loci per primer. Forty seven genotypes were broadly classified into two different clusters. ClusterI comprised of genotypes DRG-98, Utkal Tripti, DRG-6, Sel-102, Pusa Nasdar, Pusa Nutan, Arka Sujat, DRG-73, DRG-61, DRG-42 and DRG-50, while Cluster II consisted of 36 genotypes, respectively. EST-SSR primer C90830_G3was found to be highly informative with PIC value of 0.3750. The variability in the species could be creditedto introgression and selection as a result of long history of cultivation under varied climatic conditions. Thepresent data provide adequate evidence of the applicability of EST-SSR markers for diversity analyses, cultivaridentification and characterization of the Luffa germplasm.