Abstract
Abstract Switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum ), a warm season C4 grass, is a promising crop for bioenergy-dedicated biomass production. Understanding of genetic diversity within Panicum genus will facilitate switchgrass breeding. Genetic relationships of 22 Panicum species from six continents including ninety-one USDA germplasm accessions were investigated by Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) and Expressed Sequence Tags-Simple Sequence Repeat (EST-SSR) markers. Eight hundred and twenty-six markers from 28 pairs of SRAP and 25 pairs of EST-SSR Primers were used to differentiate between accessions of a bulk of 25 genotypes. The results showed that there was high genetic diversity found in Panicum species. Most genetic variation was present among the different species and cluster analysis indicated that all the Panicum accessions could be distinguished by SRAP or EST-SSR. Dendrogram results reflected the phylogenetic relationships between Panicum species and Panicum amarum was found to be the closest species to switchgrass. Comparison between molecular markers revealed that SRAP methods were considered more efficient than EST-SSR for screening Panicum accessions.
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