Assessment of genetic diversity, yield and quality performance of O-Type Sugar Beet (<i>Beta vulgaris</i> L.) breeding lines

Today, cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines are used in sugar beet breeding programs. Superior hybrid cultivars are developed by crossing parents with high overall combining ability. Molecular genetic advances allow to predict potential heterosis between parental lines. The present study was conducted to determine the magnitude of genetic variability and yield and quality traits of O-type sugar beet lines that can be used to develop CMS lines. A total of 27 O-type sugar beet lines were evaluated in genetic diversity using 16 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers and yield and quality traits were evaluated in randomized complete block design with three replications in 2021 growing season. The result of variance analysis revealed significant variation among sugar beet lines for all examined traits. According to the similarity matrix, the genetic similarity ranged between 0.4 and 0.98. The mean PIC (polymorphic information content) value of the primers was 0.79. Root yield, sugar ratio, Na, K and a-amino N contents were determined. Significant yield and quality differences were detected among the tested O-type lines. The O-type line ERU102 was suggested for higher root yield, ERU200 and ERU104 were suggested for higher sugar content, ERU200 was suggested for lower Na content, ERU198 was suggested for lower K content and ERU201 was suggested for lower a-amino N. Consequently, significant differences were observed between O-type sugar beet genotypes. The polymorphism was detected using SSR marker system. The utilization of the SSR marker system revealed substantial polymorphic characteristics.