Genetic variability in genotypes of safflower via SSR molecular marker

ABSTRACT The safflower is an oleaginous plant belonging to the Asteraceae family. It is used as a raw material for various purposes. These plants are popular for the quality and quantity of oil produced and, and thus, studying their genetic variability using markers is necessary for determining genetic resources to conduct breeding programs. Therefore, we evaluated the genetic variability of safflower genotypes using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) molecular markers. The study was conducted at the State University of Mato Grosso “Carlos Alberto Reyes Maldonado”, in the Campus of Cáceres-MT. In total, 121 safflower genotypes from the Germplasm collection were evaluated using 21 SSR markers. The programs GenAlEx 6.5, GENES, and Structure were used to analyze the data. We identified 158 alleles at 21 loci among the genotypes. The expected heterozygosity (He) was high (0.551 - 0.804), but the observed heterozygosity (Ho) was low (0.000 - 0.502), and the indices of the endogamy coefficient (F) were positive in all loci and all populations, with an overall average of 0.958. The genetic differentiation (FST) values among populations were low, with an average of 0.010, which suggested a low population structure. The modified Tocher clustering and the UPGMA hierarchical clustering yielded 19 and 15 distinct groups, respectively. The genetic structure showed two populations, with few intermixes in the genome. The evaluated safflower genotypes showed genetic variability, and these genetically different variants might be used in breeding programs to obtain cultivars adapted to Brazil.