ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC VARIATION OF TOBACCO GENOTYPES (Nicotiana tabacum) IN VIETNAM BASED ON AGRO-MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SSR MARKERS

Abstract

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is an important non-crop cultivated worldwide including Vietnam. Plant morphology, agronomic traits and chemical components have been mainly used recently for tobacco selection and breeding programs in Vietnam. Molecular markers have been successfully developed and used for tobacco improvement worldwide, but the reports on utilizing these markers for Vietnamese tobacco cultivars are very limited. In this study, variation of 71 local tobacco genotypes was assessed basing 16 important agro-morphological traits and 5 SSR markers. The classification based on the agro-morphological traits revealed three distinguishable groups with differences in the total leaf number, the leaf length and width as well as the fresh and dry leaf weight. The SSR results showed a great genetic diversity among the tested tobacco population. Particularly, the Shannon's diversity index (I) and Unbiased Expected Heterozygosity (Uhe) values were more than 0.5. Interestingly, the classification of tested tobacco based on the SSR markers was highly consistent with the results of the agromorphological division, especially for yield-related traits. Our results provide a potential to develop and utilize the SRR markers for tobacco breeding programs in near future.