TY - JOUR AU - Mohd Shamshad and S.K. Dhillon PY - 2017/01/24 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Morphological and molecular genetic diversity analyses in Helianthus annuus (L.) JF - <i>Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding</i> JA - EJPB VL - 7 IS - 4 SE - Research Note DO - UR - https://ejplantbreeding.org/index.php/EJPB/article/view/1150 AB - The knowledge of genetic diversity among parental lines is a prerequisite for selecting parents for hybridization in any heterosis breeding programme. Evaluation of 13 parental lines using D2 analysis was undertaken during spring 2014 at PAU, Ludhiana. The genotypes were grouped into four clusters. Cluster II comprised of maximum number of genotypes (5) viz., CMS-47A, P 93R, P145R, P103R, P 167R followed by cluster I (4 genotypes i.e. CMS-11A, CMS-67A, CMS-234A, 95-C-1); cluster III and IV having two genotypes each i.e. CMS-68A, RCR 8297 and P 124R, P 134R respectively. Maximum inter cluster distance of 578.187 was recorded between genotypes of cluster II and IV  while minimum inter cluster distance (175.195) was observed between genotypes present in cluster III and IV. Thirty SSR markers were used for molecular markers analysis. Total number of alleles amplified by 26 polymorphic primers was 51 with an average of 1.96 alleles per locus. The average value of polymorphic information content (PIC) for all the 26 polymorphic markers was 0.47. A polygenetic tree generated, based on Dice dissimilarity matrix and cluster analysis, led to the clustering of the sunflower genotypes into two major groups (one group comprising R lines while other comprising  A lines) while one genotype (CMS 234A) formed separate independent cluster. The result of dissimilarity matrix revealed high genetic diversity among all the inbreds lines. Overall, the values for genetic distances ranged from 0.13 to 0.71. The highest genetic distance (0.71) was observed between the genotypes i.e. CMS 67A and P 93R followed by 0.70 for CMS 67A and P124R. Minimum genetic distance 0.13 was observed between P 103R and P 134R, P 134R and P 145R which was indicative of common parentage of these genotypes in the pedigree tree. The principle coordinated analysis along with pattern of clustering of dissimilarity matrix separated the lines into two groups; one having B-lines and other for R-lines. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed greater variation within genotypes (68%) as compared to between genotypes (32%).  ER -