Microsatellite marker based cross species amplification and genetic diversity analysis in the genus Piper

Microsatellite markers have been used for cross-species amplification and genetic diversity analysis in twenty three Piper species, including Western Ghats, North East and Exotic regions. Sixteen microsatellite primers developed from black pepper were used for genotyping out of which, six polymorphic markers could generate 48 alleles. The number of alleles per locus obtained with each marker varied from 4 to 11 alleles with an average of 8 alleles per locus. The Polymorphism information content value of each marker varied for all the tested SSR loci ranged from 0.15 to 0.32. The highest PIC value 0.32 was recorded for PNB5 and the lowest PIC value 0.15 was recorded for PND10. The phylogram generated with SSR data discriminated 23 Piper species into eight clusters, three of which were further divided in to sub clusters. The microsatellite markers developed in P. nigrum L. have been found to clearly demarcated diversity among Indian and exotic species. Hence these markers can be effectively used to study genetic diversity of the genus Piper across species. This is the first report on molecular characterization of major Indian and some exotic Piper species using microsatellite markers.