PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was used to evaluate the genetic diversity of some elite Indian cotton genotypes. Twenty cotton genotypes belonging to Gossypium hirsutum L., and three to G. arboreum L. were analyzed with nine AFLP primers. Out of these nine primers, four primers were avoided because of sub-optimal primer pairing. An average of 80 scorabic bands per primer was detected and a total of 723 bands were detected. From the UPGMA dendrogram it was observed that among the total genotypes studied herein CAK-23A and K-2 are closely related giving 0.70 co-efficient of similarity and K-34007 is least similar genotype with others having average co-efficient of similarity 0.40. The main objective of the present investigation is to estimate genetic similarity of parental line of cotton hybrid genotypes. The polymorphism detected by AFLP analysis suggested that the parental lines are not homogenous and segregation might be occurring in the population. The genetic base in the Indian cotton parental lines is not particularly narrow and will continue to offer opportunities for the cultivar improvement. This is the first application of AFLP to quantify genetic diversity in Indian cotton genotypes. The genetic similarities obtained from the AFLP analysis can be used for the selection of parents in the selection of parents for breeding purpose.