Discrimination of Castor (Ricinus communis L.) Genotypes through SSR Marker

Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is one of the most ancient, non-edible oilseed crop. It is a highly polymorphic due to higher percentage of cross pollination. New genetic approaches have been developed, like molecular marker technology which adopted to map the castor genome, in order to select better cross combinations for popular hybrids. Genetic diversity in twenty two castor genotypes were assessed using SSR marker which gave higher percentage (90.90%) of polymorphic loci, higher heterozygosity (52%) and a greater range of genetic diversification for discriminating among them. In SSR analysis, a total 29 alleles were generated.The data revealed from ten markers, that genotypes JI-220, JI-353, JP-102 and JI-377 showed high genetic dissimilarity so, it is very important to improve the castor crop with the help of hybridization and crop improvement programme. The information gathered here would be helpful in genomic mapping studies with wider and diverse genetic background to obtain improved crop productivity.