Genetic diversity of soybean accessions using seed storage proteins

Soybean, Glycine max (L) Merrill, is the most important grain legume in the world that has a fairly wide range of adaptations to different climatic conditions. The present study was conducted to assess genetic variations on 139 Soybean genotypes collected from different countries including Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Pakistan, Tiwan, USA, Yugoslavia and China. A total of 17 bands have been identified for 139 Soybean genotypes which include 9 monomorphic bands and 8 polymorphic bands. Total number of bands was found highest for India (215) while these were lowest for Yugoslavia (33). Cluster analysis, clustered these accessions into 10 clusters without having any indication of grouping on the basis of their relationships to their regions. Pairwise comparisons based on Nei and Li similarities for inter-population genetic distances of soybean accessions ranged from 0.14 to 1.12. Genetic distances for soybean germplasm from different countries were found highest for Brazil (0.97+-0.03) while it was lowest for Taiwan (0.91+-0.02). Clustering for Soybean groups was clustered into three clusters including Korea, Taiwan in the first group while Yugoslavia and Japan were clustered in the second group. The third cluster was comprised of Soybean genotypes from China, Pakistan, USA, India Brazil and Australia. Total seed storage protein variation was partitioned by AMOVA on the basis of their origins into within-population and among-population components which revealed 10.00% of the total variation resided among countries and 90.0% within countries. Genetic patterns obtained from this study can help soybean breeders to make better plan for selecting germplasm from wide sources for a specific purposes. (author)