Genetic variability and heterozygosity of cocoa accessions of Parinari (Pa) population, based on microsatellite markers
Milton Macoto Yamada; Fábio G. Faleiro; Uilson V. Lopes; José L. Pires; Alfredo Dantas Neto; Acassi Batista Flores and Alessandra S.G. Faleiro
The objective of this work was to study the genetic variability and the heterozygosity of accessions of the Parinari (Pa) series in the collection of the Active Germplasm Bank (BAG) of the Cocoa Research Center (CEPEC), CEPLAC, Bahia using microsatellite markers. In the present study, 34 accessions of Theobroma cacao L. were used, being 25 of the Parinari series. Twelve microsatellite loci were analyzed generating a total of 49 alleles. Results indicated genetic variability among the Parinari accessions with genetic distances varying from 0.00 to 0.64 and heterozygosity levels between 11 and 72%. About 40% of the accessions presented heterozygosity equal or greater than 50%.