AFLP and SSR marker analysis of grape rootstocks in Indian grape germplasm

Twenty-one rootstock accessions were analyzed with seven grape microsatellite (SSR) primers and seven AFLP primer combinations. SSR primers detected 56 alleles across 21 genotypes and primer heterozygosity varied from 0.617 to 0.856. Similarly 252 AFLP bands were obtained with seven primer pairs. The average similarity index for different rootstocks was relatively low and ranged from 0.068 to 0.36 for AFLP data and from 0.13 to 0.36 for SSR data. A combination of three SSR primers was sufficient to distinguish 21 rootstocks. In cluster analysis majority of rootstocks belonging to same species grouped together. Although the dendrograms obtained with two marker systems were not identical, rootstocks belonging to same species or having common parents were grouped together in both the dendrograms.