Estimation of genetic diversity in some African germplasm collection of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq) as detected by AFLP markers
R.S. Kularatne1, F. Shah1* and N. Rajanaidu2
1Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
43600, Bangi, Selangor 2Malaysian Palm Oil Board, P.O. Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Received 19 September 1999 / Accepted 25 February 2000
Abstract.
Oil palm Elaeis guineensis Jacq is the second largest contributor of edible oil to the total fat and oil production in the world. Malaysia is at present the largest producer and exporter of palm oil. Breeding programs are being carried out in order to increase the yield, quality of oil as well as other agronomically important characters. Understanding the genetic diversity in germplasm materials is of prime importance in these breeding programmes. In this study we employed the method of AFLP to study the genetic variation present in an oil palm germplasm collection. We screened germplasm collected from Nigeria, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo) and Gambia. Ten palms from each country were selected. All together 38 genotypes were analyzed by the AFLP technique using three primer combinations of EcoRl and Mse l. The total number of bands scored was 233 of which 206 (88%) were polymorphic. The total number of bands produced by different primer pair combinations ranged from 64 to 101. Analyses of the results were carried out to determine the degree of heterogeneity and similarity between the population and two dendrograms were generated.
Keywords: Oil palm, AFLP, germplasm, polymorphism, Elaeis guineensis
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