Belonging to Lauraceae family, avocado vegetables include three races: West Indian, Guatemalan and Mexican. Molecular markers are a fast and efficient tool for genomic studies since they detect polymorphism directly at the DNA level and do not suffer any kind of environmental influence. Based on this polymorphism, it is possible to make inferences about the relationship between genotype and phenotype of individuals, which ultimately will increase the efficiency of breeding programs. The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity among seven varieties of avocados from five loci of microsatellite molecular markers (SSR). In samples of avocado evaluated it was found a total of 18 alleles, with an average of 3.6 alleles per locus. The dendrogram generated from UPGMA cluster analysis grouped separately from the rest of the genotypes the "Geada" cultivar an Antillean race, possibly because this strain is a pure race, the remainder was divided into two principal races groups, the Guatemalan and the Mexican. The genotypes of the seven varieties of avocado, show genetic diversity in the five loci of microsatellite molecular markers (SSR) assessed, indicating that they are promising materials for using in future breeding programs.
Persea americana; SSR; fingerprinting; germoplasm banks
