Association analysis for morphological traits in Brassica species using microsatellite markers

Association analysis allows precise and fast methods for positioning of genes controlling quantitative traits. For this purpose, present study was conducted to assess the association of 27 primer pairs and 16 morphological traits recorded on 36 accessions belonged to 7 species of genus Brassica by stepwise regression using SAS software. Twenty-seven SSR primers amplified 130 alleles which 127 were polymorphic bands, with an average of 4. alleles per locus. Polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.16 to 0.49, with an average of 0.77. Primers O113-D02a and Ra2-E12 had the highest PIC. The result of stepwise regression analysis showed significant relationship among 27 SSR markers and at the least one of the morphological traits. Therefore, it is possible to use these markers along with morphological data in canola breeding programs for identification of suitable parents especially in segregation populations. A significant amount of morphological variation was explained by markers BRMS-008 and BRMS-024 indicating that genes associated with these traits are possibly located in chromosomal loci close together. The most variation of oil content (0.99) was accounted by BRMS-001, BRMS-005, BRMS-007, BRMS-008, BRMS-029, BRMS-031, BRMS-040, Ni4-D09, Na14-G06, Na12-F03, Na12-D04, O113-D02a, Ra2-E12 and Ni2-F02 markers. In this study, all studied loci were uniformly distributed around traits. Therefore, coding genes of agronomcal traits could identify by sequencing of loci with highest R2. Also markers with highest association to traits can be used for saturating linkage maps.