Genetic divergence in popcorn genotypes using microsatellites in bulk genomic DNA

The genetic diversity of 25 popcorn genotypes was estimated based on DNA bulks from 78 plants of eachvariety. The procedure involved 23 microsatellite loci distributed on 9 maize chromosomes. Clustering analysis according tothe Tocher method and the hierarchical clustering procedures (nearest neighbor, furthest neighbor and Unweighted Pair-Group Method Using Arithmetic Averages - UPGMA) were performed. The cophenetic correlation coefficients indicated theUPGMA method as adequate to distinguish the varieties. The clusters suggested by the molecular analysis generally groupedgenotypes with the same genealogy together. The genetic dissimilarity of the varieties Argentina, Chile, PA-091 and PR-023was higher than of the others. Therefore, higher heterozygosity is expected in progenies from crosses with the other genotypes