Agro-morphological and molecular characterization of Turkey originated local pea (Pisum sativum L.) genotypes

In this study, 96 genotypes of Pisum sativum L. selected from the various geographic regions of Turkey were characterized both agro-morphologically and molecularly. According to agro-morphological examination of the pea genotypes, it was found that pea genotypes have a great variation in the plant height, number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, pod length, seeds per pod, biological yield, number of seeds per plant, first pod height, flowering time, 100 seeds weight and bean fold degree. Pea genotypes were molecularly characterized by using 19 SSR primer pairs and 17 of 19 SSR primer pairs were found to be polymorphic. At the end of the study, polymorphism information content (PIC) of primers ranged from 0.45 to 0.91 with an average of 0.62. and the allele numbers of markers ranged from 6 to 29 with an average of 12.421. In the dendrogram which is prepared according to UPGMA method by using SSR markers, it was obtained the genotypes clustered in two main groups, group A and group B. The grouping was not coordinated according to geographical provenance. At the end of the this study, the Turkish pea genotypes found to have a high genetic variation and could be used for specific objectives in plant breeding programs.