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Ten simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to evaluate genetic relationships in a set of twelve parental lines of sunflower representing the genetic stock, including restorers, maintainer and mutant lines of the classical cytoplasmic male sterility. A total of 26 loci were detected among the twelve genotypes. Of this, 23 loci were polymorphic for the inbred lines investigated. Average number of bands and polymorphic bands per primer were 2.6 and 2.3 respectively. NTSYS-pc (ver 2.02) was used to calculate the jaccard’s similarity coefficients. Genetic dissimilarity estimates based on simple matching coefficient revealed more genetic diversity among the genotypes tested. The greatest genetic diversity was observed between the RHA-851A and RHA-265 (0.87) followed by RHA-851A and R-298 (0.857) and more similarity was between RHA-265 and R-298 (0.08). Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis grouped the 12 genotypes into four groups at 0.74 similarity coefficient.

In the present study F2 and F3 generations were evaluated for yield and yield contributing traits to understand genetic variability and to identify transgressive segregants in three pigeonpea crosses. High variance, high heritability and high genetic advance were recorded for secondary branches per plant, number of pods per plant and seed yield in F2 and F3 generations. There was decrease in variability from F2 to F3 generation for some traits. High heritability and high genetic advances indicates that traits are under the control of additive gene action and selection will be effective. Among the three crosses transgressive segregants were high in the cross TTB 7 × ICPL87119 indicating the superiority of this cross over the others.