Genetic variability by ISSR markers in tomato (Solanum lycopersicon Mill.)

In this study we used ISSR molecular markers to evaluate the genetic variability of 96 tomato accessions from Banco de Germoplasma de Hortaliças (BGH) of Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Ten ISSR primers were individually amplified to allow the differentiation of the material. All ten primers generated 144 DNA bands, 53 being polymorphic, with an average of 14.4 per primer. The profiles generated by primer 840-(GA) 8YT contained the largest number of polymorphic bands (13 bands). The primer 855-(AC) 8YT detected the greatest differentiation of the accessions (12 accessions) while the primer HBH-884(AG) 7 did not detect any. The evaluation of the dendrogram obtained by UPGMA and Tocher' grouping method allowed the differentiation of all the accessions. Accession BGH-980 was located in a separate group, being the most divergent amongst the accessions tested by both methods. DNA profiles based on ISSR markers revealed the potential of the digital fingerprints in the diagnosis of all the accessions. From the results obtained in this study, ISSR markers have a high efficiency to differentiate the germplasm of wild species, besides origin studies.