Assessing genetic divergence in interspecific hybrids of Aechmea gomosepala and A. recurvata var. recurvata using inflorescence characteristics and sequence-related amplified polymorphism markers.
Conventional hybridization and selection techniques  have aided the development of new ornamental crop cultivars. However, little  information is available on the genetic divergence of bromeliad hybrids. In the  present study, we investigated the genetic variability in interspecific hybrids  of Aechmea gomosepala and A. recurvata var. recurvata using  inflorescence characteristics and sequence-related amplified polymorphism  (SRAP) markers. The morphological analysis showed that the putative hybrids  were intermediate between both parental species with respect to inflorescence  characteristics. The 16 SRAP primer combinations yield 265 bands, among which  154 (57.72%) were polymorphic. The genetic similarity was an average of 0.59  and ranged from 0.21 to 0.87, indicating moderate genetic divergence among the  hybrids. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA)-based  cluster analysis distinguished the hybrids from their parents with a genetic  distance coefficient of 0.54. The cophenetic correlation was 0.93, indicating a  good fit between the dendrogram and the original distance matrix. The  two-dimensional plot from the principal coordinate analysis showed that the  hybrids were intermediately dispersed between both parents, corresponding to  the results of the UPGMA cluster and the morphological analysis. These results  suggest that SRAP markers could help to identify breeders, characterize F(1) hybrids of  bromeliads at an early stage, and expedite genetic improvement of bromeliad  cultivars.
Flower Research and Development Centre, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China. zhangfei216@yahoo.com.cn
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D031229:Bromeliaceae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D002678:Chimera; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005819:Genetic Markers; D056626:Inflorescence / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D018744:DNA, Plant; D005819:Genetic Markers