1Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab
2School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, Punjab
A group of 48 sugarcane genotypes, differentiated in two sets of 24 genotypes each as cold tolerant and cold sensitive on the basis of visual and physio-biochemical traits, were characterized using 12 eSSR (EST-SSR) markers associated with cold tolerance. Although all markers showed amplification but these could not generate differential pattern to distinguish set of cold tolerant and sensitive genotypes. Further, EST sequences used to design 12 eSSR markers were BLAST analyzed on sorghum genome to identify the orthologous regions and genes. Two sorghum genes, which were found to encode heat shock and no apical dominance proteins in response to stressful conditions, were used to design five genomic SSR markers. Two genomic SSR markers, HSP sorghum3 and NAM sorghum2, were able to differentiate among cold responsive genotypes. The study could serve a strong foundation to initiate breeding for cold tolerance in sugarcane and help in identification of functional markers associated with cold tolerance in sugarcane.
Characterization, Cold tolerance, Genotypes, ESTs, Microsatellite, Sugarcane
