Analysis of Genetic Diversity in Chrysopogon aciculatus Using Intersimple Sequence Repeat and Sequence-related Amplified Polymorphism Markers

Molecular genetic diversity and relationships among 86 Chrysopogon aciculatus (Retz.) Trin. accessions were assessed using intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) and sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. Twenty-five ISSR markers generated 283 amplification bands, of which 266 were polymorphic. In addition, 576 polymorphic bands were detected from 627 bands amplified using 30 SRAP primers. Both marker types revealed a high level of genetic diversity, with ISSR markers showing a higher proportion of polymorphic loci (PPL; 94%) than SRAP markers (91.87%). The ISSR and SRAP data were significantly correlated (r = 0.8023). Cluster analysis of the separate ISSR and SRAP data sets clustered the accessions into three groups, which generally were consistent with geographic provenance. Cluster analysis of the combined ISSR and SRAP data set revealed four major groups similar to those based solely on ISSR or SRAP markers. The findings demonstrate that ISSR and SRAP markers are reliable and effective tools for analysis of genetic diversity in C. aciculatus.