Microsatellite markers associated with salt tolerance in Sorghum bicolor L.

In this study, the genetic diversification and the salinity tolerance potential of six sorghum 
cultivars was screened by microsatellite markers (SSR) related to salt tolerant genes. The data 
indicated that, the PIC (Polymorphic information content) value varies from 0 to 1 with a mean of 
0.6. The SSR primers Umc1862, Umc1501 and Umc1545 showed the highest PIC values 1, 1 and 
0.91 respectively, whereas Phi031 and Umc1719 showed 0.33 value. Cluster analysis based on salt 
tolerant gene based SSR markers, assembled cultivars into two independent clusters as tolerant and 
susceptible. The first cluster contains Horas and Maka-244 cultivars of highly salt tolerance, where 
the total scorable alleles of these genotypes was 43 and 41, respectively, while the second cluster 
contains Giza-420, PM, Special-85 and Special-90 cultivars of salt sensitivity, which registered 31 
alleles of total scorable alleles, suggesting the prospect benefit of these SSR-markers in mapping of 
salinity-related traits.