Morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization of short-day tropical Indian garlic (Allium sativum L.)

Garlic, an asexually propagated bulbous crop, displays a wide diversity based on its morphological traits and biochemical compositions. This study investigated the genetic variability of Indian garlic through morphological, biochemical, and molecular markers. Twenty-nine genotypes along with three Allium species as outgroup were included in the present study. Observations were recorded on 14 quantitative traits, 17 qualitative traits, and 9 biochemical traits in fresh garlic. Significant variability was observed among genotypes for different characters. All the morphological and biochemical traits showed higher phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) revealing the role of environment in trait expression. High to moderate heritability and genetic advance as percent mean were recorded for different traits except dry matter and Total Soluble Solids (TSS). Correlation analysis revealed the highest positive correlation between total yield, marketable yield, Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Potential (FRAP) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhyrazyl (DPPH). Cluster analysis differentiated all the genotypes into three major clusters based on morphological and biochemical traits. 214 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) were screened and nine markers exhibited polymorphism. Cluster analysis using molecular markers revealed 4 distinct clusters. The observations from this study will help in the identification of diverse garlic germplasm for its efficient management and duplicate identification of germplasm resources.