Genotype Fingerprinting, Differentiation and Association between Morphological Traits and SSR Loci of Soybean Landraces

Fifty-nine Korean soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) landrace accessions were tested for genotype fingerprinting, differentiation and association between morphological traits and SSR profile. Using 8 SSR loci, 59 varieties were divided into 55 groups, and only 4 pairs of varieties were not uniquely identified. The resolving power of SSR for soybean genotyping was much higher than that of the morphological traits that were studied. Identification efficiency also differed among SSR loci. Those loci with higher numbers of alleles distinguished varieties more effectively. Genetic differentiation values of the soybean landraces varied from 0.57 to 0.82 with a mean of 0.68. The number of alleles detected by the 8 loci ranged from 3 to 8, and the effective number of alleles ranged from 2.3 to 5.1. In a study of the association of SSR alleles with morphological traits, some alleles seemed to be related with some specific morphological traits. Comparison of two kinds of dendrograms which were derived from SSR markers and quantitative traits indicated that the dendrograms were not consistent. Considering the correlation between single SSR locus and qualitative traits governed by major genes, the data suggest that alleles of microsatellite loci be more closely related to some traits determined by major genes than those determined by minor genes.