Identification of Molecular Diversity in Gossypium hirsutum L. Against Whitefly Resistance Using SSR Markers

Whitefly is a major factor in reducing cotton yield worldwide more specifically in Asian Countries So to deal with this whitefly there is a need to separate genetically diverse varieties that can combat it due to its unique genetic source. In this study, genetic diversity analysis of cotton cultivars was done against whitefly resistance using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. For this, 75 cultivars of cotton were used to analyze genetic diversity by using 25 SSR markers out of which 9 markers were polymorphic. These markers amplified a total of 46 alleles with an average of 5.11 alleles per marker. These varieties showed a high value of gene diversity that ranged from 0.624 to 0.877 with a mean value of 0.735. Polymorphism information content (PIC) for selected genotypes ranged from 0.562 to 0.867 with a mean value of 0.704. Based on these 9 polymorphic markers 75 selected genotypes were divided into 3 major groups in a phylogenetic tree. The elected cultivars of cotton were highly polymorphic and could be used for further breeding to improve cotton accessions.