Genetic diversity in sugarcane cultivars assesed by DNA markers and morphological traits.

PERERA, M. F.; ARIAS, M. E.; COSTILLA, D.; LUQUE, C.; GARCÍA, M. B., RACEDO, J.; CUENYA, M. I.; FILIPPONE, M. P. AND CASTAGNARO, A. P.

XXVIII ISSCT Proceedings

ISSCT

Año: 2012;

Better knowledge of sugarcane genetic diversity will provide useful information concerning genotype-value for breeding programs and should contribute to improved use and conservation of genetic resources. For the aforementioned reasons and also for the protection of new sugarcane varieties and intellectual property rights, varietal identification is essential. Ideally, an identification method should be rapid, simple and inexpensive. Morphological descriptors are traditional tools to characterize varieties; however, they do not always yield clear data due to ambiguous differences or phenotypic modifications caused by environmental factors. In this respect molecular markers are becoming increasingly more important for genotype identification and diversity estimation, as they are accurate, abundant and not affected by environmental factors. The aim of this work was to integrally evaluate important genotypes used as parents by the Breeding Program of Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres (EEAOC) Argentina, by using different molecular markers (AFLP, SSR and ISSR), morphological traits and comparing data analysis softwares. All cultivars were grouped in one main cluster in dendrograms with both software programs analysed, NTSys and InfoStat. At least 150 data points were needed to obtain the same cluster perfil with both programs. Local Argentinean genotypes grouped together with US-varieties: no clear genetic differentiation could be found using either software, probably due to constant germplasm exchange. Although morphological traits only reflected external resemblance, the dendrogram topology that revealed genetic relationships was not modified when molecular and morphological methods were used together. Therefore, our results suggest that both methods should be used together to estimate genetic diversity, and molecular traits should be included in the characters established internationally for sugarcane variety protection.