Analysis of genetic diversity in cultivated jute determined by means of SSR markers and AFLP profiling

Genetic improvement of the cultivars of jute (Corchorus olitorius L. and Corchorus capsularis L.) is needed to broaden the genetic base of new cultivars. All the cultivars in use have been evolved through pure line selection from a few common accessions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity available in the cultivated species of jute. Genetic diversity was evaluated by simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci and an AFLP assay. A total of 305 polymorphic products were detected by AFLP analysis using 10 pairs of primers (EcoRI and MseI) to amplify template DNA from 49 genotypes of the two jute species. Additionally, polymorphism with two to four allelic lengths was detected with each pair of chloroplast microsatellite primers developed from Nicotiana tabacum L. Results from both evaluations showed that the level of variation between species is high. The two species indeed are distantly related and their maternal origins may be different. On the contrary, genetic variability present at the intraspecific level is low. The resulting dendrogram showed common ancestral origin for many accessions. A few major Indian cultivars of both the species, used as an internal check, were closely related to the wild accessions. Nevertheless, RG, an Indian accession and two Kenyan accessions, KEN/BL/17 and KEN/DS/35C, among the C. olitorius genotypes and CHN/FJ/69 of C. capsularis revealed phenetic distinctiveness from the rest of the genotypes studied. The results indicate that enough diversity exists to broaden the genetic base of new jute cultivars.