Acta Scientifica Malaysia (ASM)

Genetic diversity among 26 sesame accessions in Nigeria was evaluated using inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The samples’ genomic DNA was extracted from the leaf, and eleven ISSR markers were used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine allelic polymorphism, marker effectiveness and genetic relationship of the accessions. Fifty-two loci comprising 885 alleles were amplified by the 11 markers with 82.69% polymorphism. The average number of amplified loci per primer was 4.73 with a polymorphism range of 50-100%. The Principal Coordinate Analysis revealed 86.74% variability with the first three coordinates; PCoA1, PCoA2 and PCoA3 responsible for 20.38%, 13.82%, and 13.11% of the total variation, respectively. The dendrogram separated the accessions into two groups with 9 sub-clusters at a genetic distance of 10 (90% similarity). Jaccard similarity index range was between 0.50 and 0.94. In conclusion, the ISSR markers employed for this study were informative and effective in detecting variations among the accessions. Therefore, there is substantial genetic diversity existing in the twenty-six accessions of sesame which could be used in the selection of suitable parental genotypes for initiation of breeding programme for seed yield and oil quality improvement of sesame plant in the country.