Genetic Diversity of Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) Germplasm Resources Revealed by AFLP and RAPD Markers

Genetic diversity of 56 radish accessions, representing nearly all the typical types and origins of cultivated radish germplasms conserved in the National Mid-term Genebank for Vegetables of China, was assessed with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. A total of 72 and 128 polymorphic bands were generated by the 12 selected RAPD primers and eight AFLP primer combinations respectively. A moderate correlation with the value of r = 0.66 was observed between AFLP and RAPD markers. The total 200 polymorphic bands were integrated to assess the genetic diversity of 56 radish accessions. The Jaccard similarity coefficients between the accessions varied from 0.30 to 0.83 with the mean of 0.54. Cluster analysis classified the germplasms into three groups of var. hortensis Becker, var. sativus, and var. niger Kerner. The three-dimensions scatter plot of principle coordinate analysis (PCA) further divided var. hortensis Becker germplasms into two separate groups. The results indicated that the genetic diversity harbored among var. hortensis Becker germplasms was very abundant, which could be further exploited for radish genetic improvement.