Rhizoctonia solani is considered as one of the most destructive soil-and-seed borne plant pathogens infecting various agricultural crops including chickpea. The 50 chickpea isolates of R. solani representing 10 different states of India were variable in hyphal anastomosis reactions and they were grouped into seven AGs as AG1, AG2-2, AG2-2LP, AG2-3, AG3, AG4 and AG5. Genetic diversity of the pathogen was determined by using molecular markers namely, simple sequence repeats (SSR) and rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS). A neighbor-joining tree constructed based on the profiles generated by SSR markers grouped the isolates into eight categories. This revealed 90% of genetic similarity among the isolates and partial correlation with reference to their geographical origin and AGs. The isolates were amplified with a set of primers ITS 1 and ITS 4 and they produced a specific band ≈650 bp. Low level of (7%) variability was observed in the nucleotide sequences of the ITS regions of these isolates. The phylogenic tree generated from bootstrap neighboring joint analysis grouped the Indian populations of R. solani into two categories. Keywords: Chickpea, wet root rot, genetic diversity, simple sequence repeats (SSR), internal transcribed spacer (ITS).
