Abstract
This study aimed to understand the genetic diversity and population structure of alfalfa germplasm from the United States. In this study, the population structure and genetic diversity of six alfalfa cultivars of United States origin were investigated by microsatellite analysis with 40 individuals per cultivar. A total of 312 discernible alleles were amplified from the whole genome with an average of 31.2 alleles per locus. The average values of polymorphic information content and Shannon’s information index were 0.928 and 0.133, respectively, showing high levels of genetic diversity. Two populations were identified by STRUCTURE software with principal coordinate analysis and neighbour-joining clustering. Analysis of molecular variance analysis (AMOVA) revealed that the majority of genetic variation was within cultivars (96.42%) rather than between cultivars (3.58%). In conclusion, analyses of genetic diversity and population structure may be useful for the genetic analysis and utilization of genetic variation in alfalfa breeding.
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