Marcadores moleculares RAPD e descritores morfológicos na avaliação da diversidade genética de goiabeiras (Psidium guajava L.).

The knowledge of the genetic and phenotypic variability among different accessions of guava is important for supporting improvement programs of this specie in northern Rio de Janeiro state, which needs new cultivars able to generate income for local farmers. This work aimed to evaluate the genetic divergence among six cultivars and 19 accessions of guava via RAPD molecular markers and morphological characteristics. One hundred and seventeen polymorphic markers were obtained from 28 primers. The results showed a partial agreement between the methods of studied groupings, with the formation of 12 groups. The accessions 'Vita 3'and '6' were the most divergent, showing genetic distance of 0.663. The comparative analysis of groupings showed that RAPD markers and morphological descriptors were effective in discriminating the accessions and to show potential genetic variability useful in genetic improvement programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]