Evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships among tomato genotypes using morphological parameters and SRAP markers

Abstract

The exploration of genetic diversity is a pre-requisite in any breeding programme for effective selection of superior genotypes. hence, the diversity analysis was carried out with respect to nine morphological traits of 16 tomato genotypes along with one check. for diversity analysis at dna level, five forward and reverse sequence related amplified polymorphism (srap) primers were used. the 18 combinations of srap primers produced 177 amplified products among which 106 were polymorphic (59.92% polymorphism). comparison of upgma dendrograms of morphological and srap markers using the mantel’s test indicated a non-significant correlation of r = 0.019 (p = 0.56). among all tomato genotypes, srap similarities ranged from 72 to 98%, indicating the available genotypes as an important source of genetic diversity that can be exploited in future breeding programmes.