Genetic Diversity of Early Maturing Indian Maize (Zea mays L) Inbred Lines Revealed by SSR Markers

A set of 16 popular inbred lines, (8 released and 8 experimental) were analyzed using 24 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. In total 71 SSR alleles were identified with a mean of 2.96 alleles per locus. The study revealed 28 rare alleles among the total, out of which 9 were unique to some of the inbred lines. The average Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) and Discrimination Rate (DR) were 0.39 and 0.61, respectively. Genetic similarity expressed as Jaccard’s coefficient varied from 0.23–0.68 with an average of 0.41. Five clusters were obtained by using Unweighted Paired Group Method using Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA). The pattern of grouping did not match well with available pedigree information, which may be attributed to inadequate pedigree information. Inbred lines used in present study revealed heterozygosity ranges from 8.3–33.3% and were clearly distinguished with a minimum set of three markers with high PIC and DR. However, fingerprints obtained using 13 markers with high DR revealed a probability of identical match by chance at 4.06×10⁻⁸. In this study we found SSR as a good tool for characterization of maize genotypes along with morphological markers.