Molecular Characterization and Genetic Diversity of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) Germplasm

A set of 96 guava germplasm comprised of Kolar Gold Fields and Srirangapatna ecotypes, seedling origin progenies (one year old) and eight released varieties planted at the Department of Biotechnology and Crop Improvement field block, College of Horticulture, Bengaluru were used in this experiment during 2021- 2022. The study was conducted to understand the comparative genetic diversity of varieties and seedling origin progenies by using morphological and molecular characterization. Guava seedling origin progenies and released varieties showed significantly higher range of variations for different morphological characters. The maximum leaf blade length was recorded in the genotype BCIG71 (15.10 cm) while the variety Red Guava (6.70 cm) recorded maximum leaf width. The length to width ratio was highest in BCIG53 (2.60). The 96 guava genotypes were also characterized by using a set of 10 SSR primers. A total of 90 alleles were produced by 10 primers; number of alleles per locus varied from 4 (mPgCIR10) to 14 (mPgCIR02) with mean value of 9. The Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) value has recorded maximum for the primer mPgCIR09 (0.86).