Assessment of genetic diversity of cultivated chickpea using microsatellite‐derived RFLP markers: Implications for origin

Abstract

Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis was performed on 30 accessions of cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) collected from 11 different countries representing the Near East, Central Asian and Hindustani regions. A synthetic digoxygenated oligonucleotide (GATA)(4) complementary to a microsatellite DNA sequence was used as a probe. The results revealed that simple repetitive sequences are abundant and polymorphic in the chickpea genome. The fragments detected were used to estimate the genetic diversity within accessions and a similarity index between the genotypes of the accessions. The genetic distance data were used to construct a dendrogram depicting genetic relationships among the different accessions. The results indicate that the greatest genetic diversity occurs in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, south-east Russia, Turkey and Lebanon. Lower genetic diversity was found in Iran, India, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. Based on DNA markers, it is concluded that there are three centres of diversity for chickpea: Pakistan-Afghanistan, Iraq-Turkey and Lebanon. India, which was previously considered as a secondary centre of diversity for chickpea, showed lower diversity than the above regions.