Plant & Animal Genome VI Conference

P47

STUDY OF THE GENETIC VARIATION WITHIN AND AMONG SEVERAL SPECIES OF SECTIONS Extranervosae, Caulorrhizae, Heteranthae AND Triseminatae (GENUS Arachis) USING DNA MARKERS

1. Depto. de Genética, IB, UNESP, Botucatu, SP, Brasil
2. CENARGEN/EMBRAPA, SAIN, Pq. Rural, Brasília, DF, Brasil
3. Dept. of Botany, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.

Genetic variation within and among accessions of the genus Arachis representing sections Extranervosae, Caulorrhizae, Heteranthae and Triseminatae was evaluated using RFLP and RAPD markers. RAPD markers revealed a higher level of genetic diversity than did RFLP markers both within and among the species evaluated. Phenograms based on various band-matching algorithms revealed three major clusters of similarity among the sections evaluated. The first group included the species from the section Extranervosae, the second group consisted of the section Triseminatae, Caulorrhizae and Heteranthae, and the third group consisted of accessions of A. hypogaea, included as a representative of section Arachis. The phenograms obtained from the RAPD and the RFLP data were very similar, but not identical. The RAPD analysis indicated a high degree of genetic similarity between Arachis villosulicarpa and Arachis pietrarelli, supporting the hypothesis of these two species are closely related. Both RFLP and RAPD data showed that accession V 7786, previously considered to be Arachis pietrarelli aff. pietrarelli, is not closely related to Arachis pietrarelli and it is possibly another species from section Extranervosae.