Characterization of assembled clones of Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre for its genetic variability using ISSR

Genetic diversity of Pongamia pinnata within and among 5 populations collected and assembled from two different agroclimatic zones of Tamil Nadu, India. Totally 25 accesions were examined with eight inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers. A total of 120 scorable bands were generated, among which 80% were polymorphic. Jaccard similarity coefficient was calculated for pairwise comparisons. Within all 25 accessions and ranged from 0.30 to 0.88 while average within population similarity ranged from 0.50 to 0.60. Within populations variability was estimated as percentage polymorphic loci (ranging from 50% to 80%). Shannon’s information index among two zones were detected. Between and within accessions relatedness was estimated among populations with a principal coordinate analysis and also estimated with cluster analysis (UPGMA). These estimation depicts outcrossing rates both within population and between-population diversity. Molecular marker characterization can however be used to identify the most suitable zone for collection of high polymorphic accessions for tree improvement program with the yield.