Genetic diversity of Cuban pineapple germplasm assessed by AFLP Markers

The Cuban pineapple germplasm collection represents the genetic diversity of pineapple cultivated in that country and includes other important genotypes obtained from the germplasm collections in Brazil and Martinique. The collection has previously been characterized with morphological descriptors but a molecular characterization has been lacking. With this aim, 56 six genotypes of A. comosus and one of Bromelia pinguin were analyzed with a total of 191 AFLP markers. A dendrogram that represents the genetic relationships between these samples based on the AFLP results showed a low level of diversity in the Cuban pineapple collection. All Ananas comosus accessions, being the majority obtained from farmers in different regions in Cuba, are grouped at distances lower than 0.20. Molecular characterization was in line with morphological characterization. These results are useful for breeding and conservation purposes.