Molecular Variability of Celosia argentea Using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) Marker

The molecular variability of ten genotypes of Celosia argentea seeds collected from National Institute of Horticultural Research (NIHORT) and National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) germplasms were evaluated using the Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) marker. The polymorphism of C. argentea was detected within the population using primer mix of AFLP EcoRI + MseI adaptors type in three primer combinations. Powermarker software V3.25 was statistically used to analyse the fragments from extracted DNA region. The highest concentrations of genomic DNA of 13.30 μL and volume of 2 217.59 μL for total genomic DNA were recorded for NG/TO/MAY/09/015 and NG/MA/MAY/09/015 genotypes respectively. Variations were observed in the number of fragments amplified by each of the three AFLP primers combinations. The polymorphic information content (PIC) of the amplified fragment of the genomic DNA was diverse at 89.1% for DNA size of 100 base pairs, while the percentage gene diversity was 90%. The primer sequence combination of AAC + CAG produced the highest number of bands, amplified fragments, and number of polymorphic bands of 400, 40, and 156.000 respectively. A dendrogram constructed revealed three cluster groups, in which clusters 1 and 3 were delineated into 4 genotypes each, while cluster 2 had the least with two genotypes. This study revealed variability among the genome of C. argentea using AFLP marker. This could promote improvement and conservation of C. argentea germplasm for broaden genetic basis of breeding program.