Genetic variation among and within sweet corn populations detected by RAPD and SSR markers.

The main objective of the present study was to characterize the genetic structure of three Brazilian sweet corn populations. In addition, we aimed to investigate the molecular genetic diversity within and among the populations and evaluate the ability of RAPD and SSR markers to detect inter and intra-population variation in these populations. PCR were performed using 11 RAPD and six microsatellite primer pairs. Genetic similarity was estimated within and among populations considering the markers independently and jointly. Variability for each locus was measured using the Polymorphism Information Content and the correlation between pairwise distance matrices was obtained. The genetic similarity and analysis of the molecular variance results indicated a higher similarity among than within populations, and RAPD showed lower PIC values than SSR. Knowledge on the genetic diversity distribution in this germplasm is important to determine strategies for future conservation and selection for breeding programs.