RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA ANALYSIS OF THE PHENETIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG WORLD-WIDE ACCESSIONS OF HYDRILLA-VERTICILLATA

The phenetic relationships among forty-four accessions of Hydrilla ver ticillata from various regions of the world were determined using rand om amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis of bulked genomic samples , Five primers were used producing a total of 85 resolvable, polymorph ic bands. The accessions were compared using Gower and Dice metrics, c lustered using unweighted pair-group arithmetic average clustering (UP GMA) and consensus algorithms, and factored using principal coordinate analysis, Four major clusters (Asian, Australian, Indonesian, monoeci ous U.S.) and one minor outlier cluster (Japan/Poland) were identified , The U.S. dioecious accessions formed a group closest to an accession from Bangalore, India, possibly lending credence to historical report s that it was imported from Sri Lanka. The U.S. monoecious plants clus ter with an accession from Seoul, Korea, Accessions from Taiwan, Burun di, and Panama join the Asian cluster late. The New Zealand accessions cluster loosely with those from Australia. The use of band intensity in combination with the Gower similarity coefficient generated a cophe netic correlation coefficient (similarity matrix vs, UPGMA matrix) of r = 0.92, superior to that for the corresponding Dice metric (r = 0.85 ). Published by Elsevier Science B.V.