Abstract
The present study was conducted in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi and National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) Islamabad during the years 2010-2011. The experimental material consisted of thirty promising wheat genotypes obtained from various research Institutes of Pakistan. The research material was planted at NARC during Rabi 2010-11 and was then subjected to molecular characterization for estimation of genetic diversity. DNA extraction was done from wheat seeds of all genotypes and PCR reaction using SSR primers was carried out. The SSR primers generated 21 alleles with number of alleles per locus varying from 1 to 4. The highest number of scorable bands (4) was obtained with the primer XGBSS-4A while the lowest number (1) was produced by the primers XGDM33- 1D, XGLU-D1 and XPINa-1D. Maximum genotypes (25) were amplified by the primer XPINb (wild)-1D and minimum (8) by the primers XGBSS-4A and XGDM33-1D. Dendrogram was developed on the basis of the scorable banding patterns of the thirty wheat varieties using ten SSR primers by grouping the genotypes on the basis of similarities and differences. During the present investigation, genetic similarity ranged from 0.6-0.9%. This showed the presence of wide range of genetic diversity for quality traits among all genotypes studied.
