Molecular biodiversity through AFLP in banana autotriploid clones.

MERLO, G.; ERMINI, J.L.; TENAGLIA, G.; PRATTA, G.R.

Foz de Iguazú

Congreso; 11th International Plant Molecular Biology Congress; 2015

International Plant Molecular Biology Bureaux

In the Argentinean province of Formosa, banana is an important crop with an important economic contribution. The objective was to analyse the molecular biodiversity in Cavendish banana autotriploid clones of unknown genetic origin but known geographic origin (farmer?s field) and discrepant phenotypes. The molecular characterization of 44 clones from 6 banana production fields belonging to 4 different farmers was accomplished by Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) technique. Number of total bands (TB), total polymorphism percentage (PP), number of total bands exclusive to clones from only one farmer (BEP) and shared among at least one clone from all farmers (BSP) were calculated from a dichotomic presence/ absence matrix. A clustering analysis was applied to all clones, performed with Jaccard´s distances and UPGMA method. TB was 540, with PP = 100 %, BEP = 21 and BSP = 131. These results showed a high molecular biodiversity among the banana clones but an intermediate level of genetic differentiation among farmers since BEP was lower than BSP. The clustering analysis satisfactorily separated clones according to the farmer´s field and to the discrepant phenotypes among them. An appropriate consensus among molecular biodiversity and important agronomic criteria (discrepant phenotype and farmer?s field) was achieved for banana genetics resources from Formosa province through AFLP characterization. Independently of the genetic origin of clones, this information is expected to allow the design of in situ germplasm banks containing the greatest level of Formosa?s banana biodiversity in a medium term.