Field Performance and Genetic Fidelity of Micropropagated Plants of Coffea canephora (Pierre ex A. Froehner)

This study was conducted to compare the growth and yield of one of the commercial hybrid coffee cultivars (Coffea congensis x Coffea canephora) of robusta coffee established from somatic embryogenesis as well as conventional seedlings. Results indicated no statistically significant differences in the growth pattern or the cumulative yield between the somatic embryogenesis derived plants and the seedlings. The genetic fidelity of somatic embryogenesis derived plants and the mother plant was tested using sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. A total of 24 SRAP primers were employed for DNA analysis which produced a total of 153 clear, distinct and reproducible amplicons of variable size. Out of 24 SRAP primers, 9 primers produced amplification patterns which are identical between the mother plants and plants derived from somatic embryogenesis. Cluster analysis revealed more than 95% genetic similarity between the somatic embryogenesis derived plants and the mother plants indicating a high degree of genetic fidelity. The present study clearly demonstrates the usefulness of SRAP markers in genetic fidelity analysis of coffee