Analysis of the genetic variability of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) in the Yurimáguas region, Peru, using molecular RAPD markers

Abstract

Molecular markers were used to verify the existence of one or more primitive peach palm landraces, including Pampa Hermosa, in the microregion near Yurimáguas, Peru. This region provides the highest amount of seeds for peach palm heart agribusinesses in Brazil. In this analysis, we used 120 peach palm plants (Bactris gasipaes var. gasipaes) from four river basins around Yurimáguas. We used six primers, generating 73 RAPD markers. The heterozygosity ranged from 0.29 to 0.31, with a mean of 0.32, and the percentage of polymorphism ranged from 80.8 to 86.6, with a mean of 90.4. The dendrogram, based on Jaccard Similarity, presented eight groups, but it did not present groups formed by the water basins. The average gene flow was high, ranging from 11.41 to 18.89, as expected for populations within a same landrace. The analysis of the genetic diversity in this set of plants showed a common genetic basis among the plants. Nei's Genetic Distances were low, varying between 0.012 and 0.027. This suggests that such populations are very similar to each other, and that there is only one landrace in the region. Therefore, we propose the existence of only one landrace in the Yurimáguas region and the name "Pampa Hermosa" should be adopted.