TITLE:
Assessment of Genetic Diversity of NIFOR Oil Palm Main Breeding Parent Genotypes Using Microsatellite Markers
AUTHORS:
Maxwell N. Okoye, Michael I. Uguru, Claude Bakoumé, Rajinder Singh, Christy O. Okwuagwu
KEYWORDS:
Allelic Diversity, Elaeis guineensis Jacq, Genetic Distance, Heterosis, Molecular Characterization, NIFOR, Population Genetics, Selection, SSR Markers
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.7 No.1,
January
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: The genetic diversity among 15 NIFOR breeding parents was assessed using 10 microsatellite markers. A high genetic diversity was observed with a total of 64 alleles including 23 rare alleles or alleles at frequencies less than 0.05. The NIFOR tenera parents recorded the highest number of rare alleles. The average observed heterozygosity and mean gene diversity across all parental groups were 0.6889 and 0.7029, respectively. Higher genetic diversity was detected among the NIFOR dura and tenera parents compared to that of the Deli dura parents in absolute terms. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 87% of the total variation (p