Determination of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure in Eggplant

Abstract

Eggplant (Solanum melongena), an economically important crop in the genus Solanum, is known by different names in different countries. The diversity of some eggplant germplasm has studied using morphological, biochemical and molecular techniques by different scientists. Here, we studied the genetic diversity of 79 eggplant accessions collected from 28 countries in a molecular level and the efficiency of Sequence related amplified polymorphism also evaluated in comparison with other studies. The genetic diversity of 73 S. melongena accessions and six outgroups were assessed using ten sequence related amplified polymorphisms (SRAP) marker combinations. All the primer tested showed polymorphism and the average alleles registered per locus was 4.7. The primers included in the study showed moderate polymorphic information content. Genetic similarity was analyzed using Dice coefficient and the relation tree constructed using unweighted neighbor joining. The dendrogram revealed five groups and the similarity of the dendrogram ranged from 0.18 to 1 with mean value of 0.59. All the outgroups were distantly related to S. melongena accessions except the wild S. linnaeanum and S. incanum group C ,which showed strong similarity with the cultivated s. Melongena.The result reported in Dendrogram, PCoA and STRUCTURE analysis showed consistency. The genetic similarities registered in our accessions were not correlated with geographical diversity. Lack of exact provenance and accessions naming is one of the challenge beside uncoordinated work done to characterize eggplant accessions. Therefore, collecting worldwide accessions from different eggplant germplasm center and screening by power core may clarify the ongoing confusions of eggplant classification.