The objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of simple sequence repeat markers for variety identificationin 69 rose (Rosa x hybrida) varieties. A set of 112 SSR primer pairs was evaluated and 43 primer pairs showed polymorphismin 12 varieties. Twenty-two primer pairs out of 43 primer pairs showed high levels of polymorphism and reproducibility. Thegenetic relationship of 69 varieties was analyzed based on the marker genotypes of 22 SSRs. A total of 114 polymorphicamplified fragments were obtained by using 22 SSR markers. Two to ten SSR alleles were detected for each locus with anaverage of 5.18 alleles per locus. Average polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.621, ranging from 0.211 to 0.813. Atotal of 114 marker loci were used to calculate Jaccard’s distance coefficients for cluster analysis using unweighted pair-groupmethod with arithmetical average (UPGMA). Cluster analysis of genetic diversity revealed that these SSR marker sets identifiedeach genotypes of 69 rose varieties. These SSR markers may be used for wide range of practical application in varietyidentification of rose.
