Abstract: A total of 1 221 pea (Pisum sativum L.) landraces from 19 provinces in spring sowing and winter sowing areas in China were employed for SSR analysis. One hundred and four polymorphic bands were detected by using 21 SSR primer pairs. 4.95 alleles were detected by each SSR primer pair on average, of which, 62.52% were effective alleles for diversity. SSR alleles were uniformly distributed in the landraces among provinces, while the number of effective alleles and Shannon’s information index (I) varied much among provincial based groups of genetic resources. Significant difference appeared in the majority of pairwise comparisons for genetic diversity between provincial based groups of genetic resources. Inner Mongolia possessed the highest level of genetic diversity (I = 1.066), followed by Gansu (I = 1.041), Sichuan (I = 1.026), Yunnan (I = 1.017) and Tibet (I = 0.996); Liaoning was the lowest (I = 0.515) in genetic diversity. Three gene pools were detected in Chinese pea landraces, which were polarized during its adaptation and cultivation in thousands years. Gene Pool I mainly consisted of the pea landraces from Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi provinces, Gene Pool II mainly consisted of the pea landraces from Henan province, and Gene Pool III mainly consisted of the pea landraces from other provinces except Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Henan. Pairwise Nei78 genetic distance among provincial based groups of pea landraces ranged from 5.159 to 27.586, 2 large cluster groups and 8 cluster sub-groups were identified based on the dendrogram interacting with the three gene pools. The clustering results of Chinese land-races reveal ecologically and geographically close correlation to their genetic diversity.

Key words: Pisum sativum L., SSR, Genetic diversity, Chinese landraces