1International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Greater Hyderabad, 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India.
2Osmania University, Tarnaka, Greater Hyderabad, 500 007, Andhra Pradesh, India.
3Genomics Towards Gene Discovery Subprogramme, Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), CIMMYT, Int APDO Postal 6–641, 06600, Mexico DF, Mexico.
*Corresponding author E-mail: r.k.varshney@cgiar.org.
Online published 6 July, 2010
In recent years, Pongamia has been considered as important renewable source of biodiesel, however not much molecular information is available in this species. Molecular characterization of this legume tree will enhance our understanding in improving the optimal yields of oil through breeding and enable us to meet the future demands for biodiesel. To assess the molecular genetic diversity in 48 Pongamia pinnata accessions collected from six different states of India, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) marker system was employed. Five AFLP primer combinations produced 520 discernible fragments, of which 502 (96.5%) were polymorphic. AFLP primer informativeness was estimated evaluating four parameters namely polymorphism information content (PIC), effective multiplex ratio (EMR), marker index (MI) and resolving power (RP). In total, 51 unique fragments were detected of which 19 unique fragments were observed with primer combination E-ACG/M-CTA. Although neighbour joining (NJ) method did not group accessions strictly according to their region of collection, a good level of genetic diversity was observed in examined germplasm. However, accessions collected from Karnataka showed comparatively higher diversity than accessions from other states. The diverse accessions identified in this study may be useful in Pongamia pinnata improvement to meet the future demands of biodiesel.
Pongamia pinnata, AFLP, molecular diversity, biofuel, polymorphism
