Genetic Diversity Assesment of Niger Using EST-SSR markers

This book describes the level of Niger genetic diversity, which is studied at molecular level, particularly with SSR markers which are cost effective, informative and co-dominant and a contrasting sample of 65 Ethiopian Niger germplasm accessions collected from diversified eco-geographic regions were studied with eleven polymorphic EST derived SSR markers. Based on dissimilarity matrix ranging from 0.056 to 0.75, the accessions were grouped into three major and six sub clusters, showing the wealth of genetic diversity for exploitation in future breeding programs. The EST derived SSR markers used in this study also revealed high polymorphic information content (PIC) ranging from 0.2624 to 0.3677, the average being 0.3308 which indicates the usefulness of the primers in Niger germplasm characterization in the future by providing basic breeding information for breeders.