Analysis of Population Structure and Genetic Diversity in Rice Germplasm Using SSR Markers: An Initiative Towards Association Mapping of Agronomic Traits in Oryza Sativa.

Background: Genetic diversity is the main source of variability in any crop improvement program. It serves as a reservoir for identifying superior alleles controlling key agronomic and quality traits through allele mining/association mapping. Association mapping based on LD (Linkage dis-equilibrium), non-random associations between causative loci and phenotype in natural population is highly useful in dissecting out genetic basis of complex traits.