Identification of AFLP markers linked to sterility mosaic disease in pigeonpea Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.

Abstract

Sterility mosaic is an important disease of pigeonpea causing substantial loss in yield. In the present study bulk segregant analysis (BSA) was employed to identify simple sequence repeats (SSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers associated with sterility mosaic disease (SMD) resistance in the F2 population of the cross involving TTB 7 (susceptible) and BRG 3 (resistant) parents. A total of 156 SSRs and 16 AFLP primer pairs were surveyed for identification of polymorphic markers between the parents and DNA bulks of resistant and susceptible F2 individuals. Out of 10 polymorphic SSRs between the parents, none of them were polymorphic between the DNA bulks. From 13 polymorphic AFLP primer combinations between the parents, two AFLP primer pairs generated 4 markers (E-CAA/M-GTG150, E-CAA/M-GTG60, E-CAG/M-GCC120 and ECAG/M-GCC150) which were polymorphic between the resistant and susceptible bulks indicating that these markers are linked to SMD and located at a map distance of 5.7, 4.8, 5.2 and 20.7 cM respectively. The markers E-CAA/M-GTG150 and E-CAA/M-GTG60 were linked in coupling phase to the susceptible dominant allele amplifying only in susceptible individuals which, can be effectively used for marker assisted selection (MAS).