Abstract
Despite being the center of origin and genetic diversity, there has beenlimited application of molecular markers in arabica coffee breeding inEthiopia. In this study, the extent of genetic diversity and relationships of48 elite breeding lines of arabica coffee from different geographical originswere evaluated using 14 SSR markers. The SSR markers amplified 105 alleles ofwhich 104 are polymorphic with an average of 7.4 polymorphic alleles per locus.The average percent of polymorphism and Polymorphic Information Content (PIC)of the SSR markers were 98.81 and 0.79, respectively. The average geneticsimilarity coefficient among all possible pairs was 0.37 and ranged from 0.39to 0.46 within the same geographical origin. The Unweighted Pair Group MethodUsing Arithmetic averages (UPGMA) cluster analysis placed the studied breedinglines into seven clusters with Jaccard's similarity coefficient of