Genetic diversity and population structure analysis of Stylosanthes germplasm resources based on SSR markers

Correlation analysis of complex traits is based on the genetic diversity and population structure analysis of germplasm resources. In this paper, genetic diversity and population structure of 68 Stylosanthes materials were analyzed using SSR molecular markers. The results showed that a total of 146 alleles were detected in the 68 germplasm materials of 30 polymorphic markers, with an average of 4.867. The Shannon information index (I) and polymorphism information content (PIC) of each SSR marker was 0.676～1.690 and 0.363～0.764, respectively, with an average of 1.195 and 0.577. According to the genetic diversity analysis based on SSR marker data, 68 germplasm resources of Stylosanthes can be divided into six clusters. In the analysis of population structure, when ΔK reached a maximum, i.e., K = 6 , the 68 Stylosanthes accessions were divided into six groups. Our result was consistent with the results of the genetic diversity analysis. This study could provide a basis for correlation analysis and for mining elite genes of Stylosanthes.