Genetic variability of garlic genotypes maintained in Germplasm Banks has been investigated with morphologic and biochemical markers. However, the information gotten from these markers has been considered insufficient due to the small number of available markers and the small genomic portion accessed, respectively. In Brazil, the existing current knowledge on the genetic diversity of the garlic (Allium sativum L., 2n=2x=16) is resultant mainly of studies carried out by morphologic and isozyme analysis, both considered relatively little efficient in polymorphism detection. With the objective to evaluate the degree of genetic diversity and to identify duplicate accessions by genetic similarity analysis, RAPD markers were used to evaluate 20 garlic cultivars maintained in the Bank of Germplasm of Epagri. A total of 57 RAPD bands have been produced, 35 of which (61,4%) were polymorphic. The similarity indices disclosed by RAPD markers were generally high for the majority of the A. sativum cultivars. Some of them were grouped with 100% of similarity, probably being duplicated cultivars, or differing very little genetically.
Allium sativum; genetic markers; polymorphism
