Abstract:

Maize (Zea mays everta) is preferred as a good dietary in Turkey and it is important to know its genetic diversity to improve the yield. Genetic markers are very important in determining genetic diversity in popcorn populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of landraces popcorn populations by simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers. A hundred seventy five accessions of popcorn from thirty five populations grown in Turkey were analyzed using twenty SSR markers. As a result of molecular analysis, 65 of 66 alleles obtained were showed polymorphisms and the polymorphism rate was 98.5%. The average number of alleles for each SSR loci was 3.3, and this the number of alleles varied from 1 to 5. The average the polymorphism information content (PIC) value was calculated to be 0.57 for SSR locus ranging from 0.00 to 0.89. The number and percentage of polymorphic loci of the genotypes were determined to vary between 29/47% and 43.94/71.21 % and the mean values were calculated as 39.114 and 59.265 % respectively. The value of genetic change in the phylogenetic tree obtained from landraces popcorn populations was determined as 0.05, and the genetic difference among genotypes varied from 14.7 to 97.1%. Among the markers used in the study, it was observed that code ‘phi064’ was the most effective marker for determining genetic diversity in popcorn and the highest allele frequency also on this marker was obtained.

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