The present study was undertaken to assess the genetic diversity in the ninety six oat (Avena sativa L.) elite cultivars representing the collection from various eco-geographical regions of India. The molecular diversity analysis using 40 SSR markers clustered all the 96 cultivar into ten clusters and significant level of distinction (dissimilarity coefficient ranged from 0.12 to 0.96) was depicted among the lines indicating a high degree of divergence among these lines. Genotypic pairs having

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... tmost genetic dissimilarity (0.96) were OL1634 and OL1688, OL1702 and OL1688, OL1705 and OL1634, UPO03-3 and OL 1688, and UPO03-3 and OL1705 that can be used as parents in purposeful hybridization programs. Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) values ranged from as low as 0.06 to as high as 0.75 (AM 7). Owing to their highest PIC values, primer pairs AM7 (0.75), AM2 (0.69) and AM10 (0.69) can be further used in association mapping studies in oat. The Un-weighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) based dendrogram revealed the cluster V (19 genotypes) as the largest and cluster X (3 genotypes) as the smallest one. Thus, genotypes within clusters can be predicted as similarity pool in further oat improvement programs. The selected panel of SSR markers performed well in detection of genetic diversity patterns and can be recommended for future germplasm characterization studies in oats.