GENETIC DIVERSITY IN LOQUAT GERMPLASM USING SRAP AND SSR MARKERS

Forty-six accessions of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) from six countries were analyzed with SRAP and SSR markers to investigate the genetic diversity of cultivated loquat germplasm. A total of 13,435 SRAP bands and 685 SSR bands were obtained with 50 informative primer combinations. A total of 236 bands among 434 SRAP bands (54.37%) were polymorphic as well as eight of ten SSR primer combinations. The average value of observed number of alleles (Na), effective number of alleles (Ne), Nei’s gene diversity (H) and Shannon information index (I) were 1.592, 1.290, 0.174, and 0.183, respectively. The mean coefficient of gene differentiation (Gst) among populations was 0.691, suggesting that 69.1% of the Gst was among populations and 30.9% was within populations. There was a weak gene flow among populations; the mean estimate of gene flow was 0.224. The 46 accessions were clustered into four groups. The genetic relationships of 46 loquat cultivars were analyzed by the similarity coefficient (GS).