Genetic characterization and diversity among avocado (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Persea americana</Emphasis> Mill.) genotypes from INIA-CENIAP,Venezuela

Studies on Persea americana have been addressed in different ways with biochemical and molecular techniques. Microsatellites are able to detect multiple alleles for particular loci and are therefore a useful tool to study genealogical relationships, population structures and genetic mapping. Ninety-six samples from 49 cultivars including three horticultural groups and hybrids were collected from the avocado germplasm bank at INIA-CENIAP (Venezuela). A modified DNA extraction protocol was performed. Forty microsatellites were selected from previous references, PCR amplifications were performed, and presence/absence, size, and number of alleles were evaluated on polyacrylamide gels. Attributes for polymorphic alleles were analyzed with POPGENE, and genetic diversity was calculated by effective sample size, number of alleles per locus (Na), effective number of alleles (Ne), Shannon information index (In), observed heterozygosis (H), expected heterozygosity (He), Wright’s fixation index (Fis), and allele frequencies. Only 14 primers were amplified, and AVT106 primer resulted monomorphic. Unique genotypes for each sample were obtained. Nine loci showed allele patterns that can be useful for taxonomic identification of cultivars or varieties. Comparing values of Fis with Ho and He, we found a direct relationship where low heterozygosis alleles identified in the population may affect the expected level. Allele frequencies ranged from 0.5632 to 0.0105. For all loci, at least one rare allele was observed. With the available information from genetic analysis, an identifying system was implemented for selected avocado cultivars maintained at the INIA-CENIAP Venezuelan germplasm bank on the basis of molecular data.