| Summary: | The study utilised a total of twenty simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to investigate the genetic diversity of 53
watermelon accessions from different groups of Citrullus i.e., citroides, lanatus, and colocythis. Twelve of the twenty
SSR markers were shown to be highly polymorphic and were statistically analyzed using Power Marker and NTSYSPc
softwares. A total of 33 alleles were generated by polymorphic SSR markers, on an average of 2.6 alleles per loci.
Heterozygosity among accessions for individual loci varied from zero to 0.17 (BVWS02306 marker).The gene diversity
and PIC values varied between 0.08 to 0.72 and 0.46 to 0.90, respectively and the primer which had the highest gene
diversity and PIC values was BVWS02422. The UPGMA-based dendrogram classified all the 53 accessions into
two major clusters at 48 per cent similarity. All 41 cultivated watermelon accessions were grouped in cluster I and
the remaining 12 accessions from wild types were grouped in cluster II. Thus, this study highlights the importance of
molecular markers in the identification of wild and cultivated lines and their exploitation in future breeding programs.
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