Cross-species Amplification and Molecular Diversity Analysis in Greengram [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] and Ricebean [Vigna umbellata Thunb.]

Background: Greengram is the fourth dominant pulse crop grown in India and is highly susceptible to bruchids and yellow mosaic virus. Ricebean belonging to the tertiary genepool of greengram shows resistance to this pest and disease. Ricebean being a minor pulse crop has limited SSR markers. Hence, the present study was conducted to test the cross-species amplification of SSR markers derived from related species which could be helpful in studying the molecular diversity available in each crop and for molecular confirmation of the inter- and intra-specific hybrid developed from the crosses.Methods: Molecular diversity analysis was carried out using 30 genotypes belonging to two species of Vigna (V. radiata and V. umbellata) based on 20 SSR primers derived from adzukibean, commonbean and greengram. Result: Cross species amplification was observed for all the SSR primers pairs used. The number of alleles detected varied from one (VJ 31122A) to four (CEDAAG 001 and MB 91) with an average of 2.55 alleles per primer. Allele size varied from 100 to 292 bp. The PIC value ranged from zero to 0.611 with an average value of 0.377. Dendrograms constructed based on UPGMA and Neighbour-Joining tree method, grouped the genotypes into five clusters and five groups, respectively. The V. umbellata genotypes were grouped in separate cluster from the V. radiata genotypes in both the methods. The obtained DNA polymorphism at intra- and inter-specific level will facilitate the application of molecular breeding approaches for greengram improvement.