Morphological and molecular diversity reveal wide variability among sorghum Maldandi landraces from India

Maldandi is a popular sorghum variety for post-rainy or rabi cultivation in southern and central states of India, which is predominantly used for food purpose. Over time many landraces have been collected from these states which have vernacular connection with Maldandi. Genetic diversity among 82 Maldandi landraces, collected from such geographical regions was evaluated using both morphological (quantitative and qualitative) and SSR markers. In general, both morphological and SSR diversity revealed wide variability among the accessions studied. Euclidean distances based on 17 quantitative traits classified the accessions into two major clusters with two out groups, while the 19 qualitative traits clustered the accessions in one major cluster with six out groups. Sixteen out of 20 (80%) SSR markers detected polymorphism among the accessions with average PIC value of 0.36. Un-weighted neighbor joining clustering grouped the accessions into three clusters with 46, 16 and 17 accessions, respectively throwing three outliers. Average similarity coefficients of 0.62 and 0.34 based on morphological (qualitative) and SSR data indicated presence of wide variability among the Maldandi landraces. The standard check, M 35?C1 (a selection from the original Maldandi) could not be differentiated from EP 98, LG 2, LG 10, IS 4509 and IS 40791 based on qualitative data alone, while EP 54 and IS 33839 were indistinguishable from M 35?C1 solely using SSR markers. Either of the dendrogram threw unique grouping patterns with some identity. Thirteen promising Maldandi accessions selected based on field performance as well as morphological and molecular diversity could be used in the rabi improvement programme. SSR markers combined with morphological traits may effectively be used for designing breeding strategy and management of biodiversity and conservation of Maldandi genetic resources.