Characterization of sweet cassava accessions based on molecular, quantitative and qualitative data

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to estimate the genetic divergence in sweet cassava accessions by molecular markersand quantitative and qualitative characters, as well as determine the correlation between these estimates. Sixteen sweet cassavaaccessions of the Regional Cassava Germplasm Bank of the Cerrado were evaluated under field conditions, for 13 quantitative and33 qualitative characters. In the laboratory, the accessions were evaluated with RAPD markers. Subsequently, matrixes of geneticdissimilarity/distance among the accessions were estimated based on molecular markers and quantitative and qualitative characters.Besides, the significance of the correlation between the matrixes was estimated. The RAPD, qualitative and quantitative dataindicated the existence of high divergence among the accessions. The divergences estimated by molecular markers and by quantitativetraits were weakly associated with each other and moderately with the divergence estimated by qualitative characters.

Keywords

• Manihot esculenta Crantz
• genetic resources
• breeding
• genetic variability