title: Genetic divergence among  Brazilian garlic cultivars based on morphological characters and AFLP markers.
abstract: Outside  its centers of origin, garlic propagates only asexually. Since asexual  reproduction leads to the absence of meiotic recombination, the main garlic  cultivars available for cultivation have arisen from the accumulation of  somatic mutations in early cultivars. Thus, it is common for a single clone to  have different names in different regions. This study aimed to evaluate the  genetic diversity of 20 garlic cultivars by using morphological characters and  amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers to identify possible  duplicate cultivars. We assessed 28 morphological characters related to the leaves,  bulbs, and bulbils of the garlic plant and divided them into two categories:  quantitative and qualitative (14 characters each). For molecular marker-based  analysis, we used three AFLP primer combinations. Genetic divergence was  calculated using the Jaccard coefficient; the cultivars were grouped using  unweighted pair-group mean analysis. The average genetic divergence detected  using the morphological characters was 2.30 (range, 0.45-4.70). Plant height  and coat adhesion exhibited the highest divergence among the cultivars. The  average genetic diversity based on AFLP data was 43% (range, 0-79%).  Dendrograms derived from both techniques divided the cultivars into two groups:  noble and semi-noble. Together with the divergence within groups, the  correlation between morphological and molecular data suggested that the  cultivars in the noble group had greater phenotypic stability than those in the  semi-noble group. Analysis of Jonas and Quitéria cultivars using these two  techniques revealed only slight differences, suggesting that these cultivars  may be clones or have a high degree of kinship.
authors: Departamento de Agronomia, Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste, Guarapuava, PR, Brasil.
authors: R G F
authors: RG
authors: Morales
authors: J T V
authors: JT
authors: Resende
authors: F V
authors: FV
authors: Resende
authors: C A
authors: CA
authors: Delatorre
authors: A S T
authors: AS
authors: Figueiredo
authors: P R
authors: PR
authors: Da-Silva
mesh_terms: D054458:Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis / Q000379:methods; D015415:Biomarkers; D001938:Brazil; D005737:Garlic / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers