Development of microsatellite markers set for identification of Indian potato varieties

Aim of this study was to analyze allelic variations in Indian potato varieties and to develop a dataset of SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers for varietal identification. Total of 155 SSR alleles of 12 markers were scored in 48 varieties with alleles per locus varied from 4 (STM1053) to 35 (STIKA), and polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged between 0.53 (STM1053) to 0.92 (STIKA). Total of 1492 absolute alleles frequencies were detected in the varieties ranging from 19 (Kufri Arun or Kufri Sadabahar) to 45 (Kufri Kundan) with marker-wise allele frequencies were maximum in STIKA (273) and minimum in STM5127 (73) or STM1053 (73). During the analysis two markers STM0037 and STI0030 did not show any amplification (null alleles). Allelic profiling of potato varieties showed distinctness and polymorphism of the SSR markers system. A set of minimum two-markers-set (STIKA and STU6SNRN) was developed for varietal identification up to similarity coefficient 0.89. Besides, another six-markers-set (STI0012, STPoAC58, STM0019, STM0031, STM1104 and STM1052) was also developed from the PGI (Potato Genome Identity) kit for the same purpose. These newly developed SSR markers sets of Indian potato varieties have potential roles in varietal identification, genetic fidelity testing, DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability) and molecular characterizations.