Assessment of genetic diversity of soybean genotypes differing in resistance against yellow mosaic virus using simple sequence repeat markers

Yellow mosaic virus disease is one of the major diseases of soybean in India. Genetic basis of 41 soybean genotypes varying in resistance against yellow mosaic virus was studied using 58 simple sequence repeat primers. A total of 140 alleles with an average of 2.41 alleles per locus were detected, which indicated very narrow genetic base of the genotypes studied. The polymorphic information content varied from 0.00 to 0.754 with an average of 0.357. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Average allocated the genotypes in 2 major clusters separated at 41% similarity with fairly good bootstrap support. Ten unique alleles observed in the study can be used for identification of genotype possessing that particular unique allele. The resistant group comprised of 21 genotypes with similarity coefficient 0.33 to 0.805, of which 20 genotypes were classified in a single sub-cluster. The results presented are of significance with regard to the identification of suitable donor parents for incorporating yellow mosaic resistance into popular soybean varieties. Genetically diverse parents with varying resistance against yellow mosaic virus identified in the study can be used for generating mapping population for the identification of SSR markers closely linked with yellow mosaic virus.