GENETIC DIVERSITY OF PERSIMMON LANDRACES AS ASSESSED BY MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS AND IRAP MOLECULAR MARKERS IN JIANGXI PROVINCE

A collection of 59 persimmon accessions representing 34 landraces from 4 different geographic regions in Jiangxi province was assessed for genetic diversity with 28 morphological traits and IRAP molecular markers. A total of 167 alleles were detected at 28 morphological traits, which indicated considerable morphological variability. Nine primers were used and yielded 59 polymorphic fragments with percentage of polymorphism values ranging from 60 to 100%. Genetic similarity of 59 landraces in the dendrogram ranged from 0.44 to 0.95. Overall results showed that there was abundant genetic diversity among 59 persimmon landraces in both morphological traits and molecular level, indicating an important source of genetic diversity that can be exploited in future breeding programs.