IDENTIFICATION BY SSR AND SRAP MARKERS AND HETEROSIS ANALYSIS OF F1 HYBRIDS (Medicago ruthenica L.)

Medicago ruthenica L. could be used as the crossbreeding material in forage crops to provide rich resistance gene resources based on its strong resistance to adversity stress. This study aimed to identify the authenticity and analyze heterosis of the intraspecific hybrids acquired from two Medicago ruthenica L. materials. The results showed 85 true hybrids in 118 F1 progenies identified by one SSR marker and five SRAP markers. Besides, the SRAP markers (13.89%) indicated higher identification efficiency than SSR markers (7.69%), and the rate of true hybrids in HZ population (100%) was higher than that in ZH population (36.54%). The six agronomic traits varied to different degrees, and their variation coefficients ranged from 18.53% to 45.72% in 13 hybrids of ZH population in 2019 and 2020. Moreover, ZH7 and ZH8 presented excellent agronomic performance, which could be used as candidate materials for further research. The mid-parent heterosis (Hm) of all agronomic traits was between -20.55% and 36.46%, and heterobeltiosis (Hh) showed negative values of 13