iPBS-Retrotransposons Based Genetic Diversity and Relationship Among Wild Annual Cicer Species

Lack of requisite genetic variation in the cultivated species has necessitated systematic collection, documentation and evaluation of wild Cicer species for using in chickpea variety improvement programs. Cicer arietinum has very narrow genetic variation, and the use of wild relative in chickpea breeding could provide good opportunity for increasing the available genetic variation of cultivated chickpea. Genetic diversity and relationship of seventy one accessions, from the core area of chickpea origin and domestication (Southeastern Turkey), belonging to five wild annual species and one cultivar species (Cicer arietinum) were analyzed using iPBS-retrotransposon and ISSR markers. Total of 136 scorable bands were detected using 10 ISSR primers among 71 accessions belonging to 6 species, out of which 135 were polymorphic (99.3%), with an average of 13.5 polymorphic fragments per primer, whereas iPBS detected 130 bands with 100% polymorphism with an average of 13.0 bands per primer. C. echinospermum and C. pinnatifidum were the most diverse among species, whereas C. arietinum exhibited lower polymorphism. The average polymorphism information contents (PIC) value for both marker systems was 0.91. The clustering of the accessions and species within groups was almost similar, when iPBS and ISSR NeighborNet (NNet) planar graph were compared. Further detailed study is indispensable to collect Cicer germplasm especially C. reticulatum from southeastern Turkey particularly, from Karacadağ Mountain for preservation, management of this species, and to study their genetic diversity at molecular level. This study also demonstrates the utility and role of iPBS-retrotransposons, a dominant and ubiquitous part of eukaryotic genomes, for diversity studies in wild chickpea and as well as in cultivated chickpea.