Genetic diversity assessed by microsatellite markers in sweet corn cultivars

Information on genetic diversity is essential to the characterization and utilization of germplasm. The genetic diversity of twenty-two sweet corn cultivars (seventeen open-pollinated varieties, OPV, and five hybrids, H) was investigated by applying simple sequence repeat markers. A total of 257 primers were tested, of which 160 were found to be usable in terms of high reproducibility for all the samples tested; 45 were polymorphic loci, of which 30 were used to assess the genetic diversity of sweet corn cultivars. We detected a total of 86 alleles using 30 microsatellite primers. The mean pol...