Genetic diversity of Chinese Spring Soybean Germplasm Revealed by SSR Markers

Abstract

AbstractTo use, maintain and increase crop germplasm collections efficiently, it is important to assess the diversity of these collections. In this study, 1383 accessions of Chinese spring sowing soybean (Glycine max) were used for SSR analysis. In total, 1111 alleles were detected among these collections with an average number of alleles (NA) of 18.52 per locus. The genetic diversity index (PIC value) varied from 0.456 to 0.928 with an average of 0.815. Intensive breeding of cultivars have led to a decrease of genetic diversity. Random‐repeated sampling within landraces of different geographical regions suggested that the ranking of both average NA and PIC values among different geographical regions were North spring soybean (Nsp) > South spring soybean (Ssp) > Northeast spring soybean (NEsp), but because of the uneven distribution of SSR variation patterns, the differences between them did not reach a significant level. There was a relationship between genetic distances and geographical distances among soybean populations from different regions, indicating a certain degree of geographical differentiation among Chinese soybean germplasm collections.