Genetic characterization of global collection of flax (L. Usitatissimum L.) utilizing molecular marker

Abstract

In assess the sufficient knowledge of genetic diversity, population structure and linkage disequilibrium were estimated among the three representative sub-population: Pop 1 (Indian accessions), Pop 2 (different species of Linum genus) and Pop 3 (exotic accessions) of flax using ISSR marker systems. A total of 118 number of alleles were amplified by eleven primers, with an average of 10.64 alleles per primer (100 bp −2072 bp). The maximum PIC value (0.25) was observed in the primer combination UBC808, which indicated that it as the most informative primer among the eleven primers to study genetic diversity among flax genotypes. The results of the AMOVA indicated that genetic variation within sub-populations (92%) was significantly higher than the variation among the sub-population (8%). According to the results of split network tree analysis, population structure and PCA, the total 264 flax accessions were distinctly clustered into eight genetic groups. Overall the mean LD value was less than the threshold level (r2 < 0.1) explaining that the population has a high level of outcrossing or gene flow. The knowledge generated through ISSR fingerprinting in this study has enhanced our conception of population structure and LD of the flax population, which has high implications for genetic improvement and association mapping.