Genetic Diversity Analysis of Jatropha Species from Costa Rica Using AFLP Markers

Roberto Avendaño¹, Elmer García Díaz², Marta Valdez-Melara², Nefertiti Chaves Solano¹, Aníbal Mora Villalobos¹, Francisco Aguilar Cascante¹, Bruce Williamson Benavides², Laura Y. Solís-Ramos^2*

¹Center for Biotechnological Innovations (CENIBiot), CeNAT-CONARE, San José, Costa Rica.
²School of Biology, University of Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.

DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2015.614245                

Abstract

The genetic diversity from species of the genus Jatropha collected from Costa Rica was analyzed by AFLP (amplified fragments length polymorphism). The study consisted of 114 accessions from 15 populations of 4 different species: J. curcas, J. costaricensis, J. gossypifolia and J. stevensii. These were collected from different locations in Costa Rica. Three different primers were used, resulting in 428 loci, and they were classified in three categories: unique and double bands (UBD), rare bands (RB) and shared bands (SB). The UBD were excluded for a total of 339 polymorphic loci used for the UPGMA dendrogram and principal component analysis (PCA). The species that obtained the highest average of polymorphic loci was J. curcas, which obtained the highest percentage of polymorphic loci (80.24%), followed by J. gossypifolia (79.35%), J. costaricensis (78.76%), and finally J. stevensii (40.71%). The average for the polymorphic loci was of 69.76%. Thus, the phylogeny of the Jatropha species in Costa Rica was elucidated, showing J. curcas more related to J. stevensii and this one with J. costaricensis, and J. gossypifolia as the most distant member of the genus. For the best of our knowledge this is the first report of a genetic analysis of J. costaricensis and J. stevensii. The obtained molecular evidence showed high levels of polymorphisms in the present study compared with reports from Africa, India, and China. The molecular diversity estimated in our analysis, together with agronomical or morphological data, can be very useful for plant breeding programs, given the importance of Jatropha species in oil production. Interestingly, Central American Jatropha material can be used to increase the genetic base of J. curcas populations localized in Asia and Africa, where reduced genetic diversity has been reported.

Keywords

Jatropha spp., AFLP, Molecular Markers, Polymorphism, Genetic Diversity

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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