During the commercial production of gerbera seedlings, flower color is one of the main morphological aspects that have an agronomic interest and becoming an important feature in genetic breeding programs. The use of molecular markers may serve to direct crossings, new hybrids and mutants, besides confirm and identify new genotypes for commercial purposes. In that context, this work aimed to analyze the genetic divergence among six cultivars of Gerbera jamesonii ('Jaguar Yellow', 'Jaguar Cream', 'Jaguar Lemon', 'Jaguar Salmon Pastel', 'Jaguar Red', 'Jaguar Deep Rose'). The genetic divergence among cultivars of gerbera was carried out with 21 primers, which amplified 37 DNA polymorphic fragments, used to estimate the Jaccard index and presented an average of 0,38, ranging from 0,28 to 0,56. The genetic structure among cultivars was estimated by UPGMA and revealed two distinct groups, at 38% genetic similarity. The largest genetic similarity found (56%) was between cultivars 'Jaguar Yellow' and 'Jaguar Lemon'. The results showed that the RAPD is a fast, relatively inexpensive and useful technique for genetic divergence characterization between different cultivars of Gerbera jamesonii.
Gerbera jamesonii; molecular markers; Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA
