The aim of the present study was used to develop SSR markers and to determine genetic relationships among Asparagus species and its cultivars. We mined 72953 Asparagus nucleotide sequences from NCBI and were analyzed. In total, 143 SSRs from 1943 SSRs containing sequences were identified. Of these, 13.6 % were dinucleotide repeats and 2.3 % were trinucleotide repeats. The most frequent dinucleotide repeat motif was AA/TT (73.9 %). The percentage of tri-nucleotide motifs was highest which coded for stop codon (36 %), whereas the Glycine was least present (4.5%). Among the total of 14 SSR primers used, 10 markers yielded 144 (92.3 %) polymorphic bands with an average of 14.4 alleles per primer. Cluster analysis based on UPGMA grouped the Asparagus species and its cultivars into two main clusters. Cluster A contained only A. grecilius which is more diverse than others, while cluster B was further clustered into two sub clusters. Cluster I was comprised of Asparagus officinalis cultivars and cluster II was comprised of Asparagus wild species. Furthermore, these primers (42.8%) were found to be transferable in other medicinal plants (Curcuma longa L. and Saussurea costus). The results suggest that SSR markers are sufficiently useful and powerful to assess genetic relationships and diversity analysis in Asparagus and A. officinalis cultivars. Furthermore, these markers will be particularly useful for evolutionary and genetic mapping studies in Asparagus. J. Biodivers. Conserv. Bioresour. Manag. 2018, 4(2): 21-32

The aim of present research was to study the genetic diversity among Asparagus species and its cultivars using morphological characteristics and RAPD markers. In-vitro and field experiments of 14 germplasm sources of Asparagus species and its cultivars were conducted at the Kohat University of Science and Technology to estimate the comparative performance. Highest genotypic variance, phenotypic variance, genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variance were observed in shoot height in shoot related traits were 318.40, 320.30, 939.34 and 944.96, respectively, whereas highest values for root related traits were observed in root length that were 21.84, 22.35, 141.60 and 144.91 respectively. Among the shoot related traits maximum heritability, genetic advance and genetic gain were calculated for shoot length, while in root related traits these characters were highest for root dry weight. RAPD markers were used to evaluate genetic diversity analysis of 14 germplasm sources of Asparagus species and its cultivars. RAPD markers generated a total of 247 bands, of these 239 bands were polymorphic with average of 34.1 bands per primer. Cluster analysis based on Neighbor Joining methods showed that wild species (A. adsendens, A. densiflorus, A. capitatus, A. gracelus, A. plumosus, A. racemosus and A. setaceus) were genetically distant from A. officinalis and its cultivars (Abril, Apollo, Gersengum, Huchel, Para seletion and Taranga). The results of the present investigations could be particularly used for authentic identification and would be useful for evaluation of genetic improvement of Asparagus species and its cultivars. J. Biodivers. Conserv. Bioresour. Manag. 2019, 5(1): 13-24