Comparative Analysis of RAPD and ISSR Markers for Characterization of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L) Genotypes

The determination of genetic differences among crop genotypes has become the primary need to grant patent and the protection of Plant Breeder Rights (PBR). In the present study RAPD and ISSR markers were employed for the characterization of 16 sesame genotypes. Twenty six RAPD and 17 ISSR primers that generated clear and reproducible banding patterns amplified 194 and 163 bands, respectively among 16 sesame genotypes. Both RAPD and ISSR primers showed maximum discrimination power, and produced putative variety specific bands, which could be used for the identification of all the sesame genotypes, individually. However, only AG and CA based ISSR primers were found effective in the discrimination of genotypes. A poor correlation was observed between the matrices produced by RAPD and ISSR primers, which might be due to the array of different sites of the genome. Though, there was greater similarity among sesame genotypes (0.78 for RAPD and 0.71 for ISSR), the observed genetic diversity (0.22 for RAPD and 0.29 for ISSR), was found effective for the characterization of sesame genotypes. It is suggested that putative variety specific RAPD and ISSR markers could be converted to Codominant sequence characterized amplified region/sequence tagged site (SCAR /STS) markers to develop robust variety specific markers.