Genetic diversity of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) cultivars revealed by simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers

• Genetic diversity on 19 ochardgrass cultivars was evaluated by the SSR marker.
• A total of 209 bands were amplified by 25 SSR primer pairs.
• Of these bands, 192 (91.5%) bands were found to be polymorphic.
• The study indicated that orchardgrass possessed a high level of genetic variation.

In this study, the SSR molecular markers were used to characterize the genetic diversity in 19 specimens of orchardgrass cultivars collected from China and other countries. Two hundred and nine amplified bands from 25 SSR primer pairs were selected for genetic analysis, among which 192 bands (91.5%) were found to be polymorphic. The polymorphism information content ranges between 0.17 and 0.44, the genetic similarity coefficient ranges between 0.7134 and 0.8672, and the genetic distance ranges between 0.1425 and 0.3377. The data showed that SSR molecular markers can detect more genetic loci, and could be taken as an effective approach for the analysis of genetic diversity of orchardgrass.