Evaluation of genetic diversity of promising cotton genotypes by seed protein markers

Identifying and assessing genetic diversity has a significant impact on cotton improvement programs. For this purpose, electrophoresis of seed storage proteins is a beneficial tool for identification of genetic diversity and genetic distance among cultivars. In this research, water and salt soluble proteins were extracted from cotton seed and after the electrophoresis, scoring and analysis was done. The results showed that there were 16 bands for 18 cultivars. The highest number of bands belonged to Avangard, 010 and B-557 cultivars and the lowest to Oltan. UPGMA cluster analysis was carried out using the coefficient of Jaggard, and the results revealed five genetic groups. Principal Coordinates analysis showed that the first three principal components explained 81.31 percent of total variance of the data. Also, according to the information obtained from Neiʹs (1973) gene diversity, 14 markers were polymorph and two markers were monomorph. Therefore, presence of genetic diversity as evaluated by seed storage proteins will make it possible to use these markers in different breeding programs.