Genetic relationships among Stylosanthes species revealed by SSR analysis

To investigate genetic relationships among Stylosanthes species, a total of 33 accessions from 14 Stylosanthes species were studied using 23 simple sequence rpeats (SSR) markers. All 23 SSR markers were polymorphic among 33 Stylosanthes accessions. A total of 138 alleles were generated by 23 SSR markers among different Stylosanthes accessions. The number of alleles per SSR marker ranged from 4 to 10 with an average of 6 alleles. The polymorphic information content per SSR marker varied from 0.501 to 0.830, with an average of 0.700. Based on the results of analysis of cluster and principal components, the 33 Stylosanthes accessions were divided into 5 separate clusters, which were named to be cluster AB, cluster AC, cluster J, cluster DE and cluster G based on genome contained. The highest and lowest genetic relations were presented between S. subsericea and S. hamata (I), S. hamata (I) and S. capitata, respectively.