Genetic divergence in popcorn genotypes using microsatellites in bulk genomic DNA
Tereza Aparecida da Silva, Ronald José Barth Pinto, Carlos Alberto Scapim, Claudete Aparecida Mangolin, Maria de Fátima Pires da Silva Machado and Misael S N Carvalho
ABSTRACT – The genetic diversity of 25 popcorn genotypes was estimated based on DNA bulks from 78 plants of each variety. The procedure involved 23 microsatellite loci distributed on 9maize chromosomes. Clustering analysis according to the Tocher method and the hierarchical clustering procedures (nearest neighbor, furthest neighbor and Unweighted Pair-Group Method Using Arithmetic Averages-UPGMA) were performed. The cophenetic correlation coefficients indicated the UPGMA method as adequate to distinguish the varieties.The clusters suggested by the molecular analysis generally grouped genotypes with the same genealogy together. The genetic dissimilarity of the varieties Argentina, Chile, PA-091 and PR-023 was higher than of the others. Therefore, higher heterozygosity is expected in progenies from crosses with the other genotypes.