GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SIX MANGO (Mangifera indica L.) CULTIVARS USING RAPD MARKERS

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is considered as one of the oldest cultivated trees in the world. Six elite mango cultivars namely, Alphonse, Ewais, Hindi khassa, Keitt, Langra and Zebda were screened using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) genetic markers with ten random primers (12 - mer) of arbitrary sequence. The obtained results showed that, the six tested mango cultivars in this study were varied at the DNA level. A total number of 130 fragments were visualized among the investigated cultivars, including 125 polymorphic fragments. Number of produced fragments were ranged from six (A1 primer) to 18 (A9 primer) among the six cultivars. Polymorphism levels were differed from one primer to the other. The ten primers showed 83 specific molecular markers which discriminated each cultivar from the others. The highest similarity index (0.600) was recorded between Ewais and Hindi khassa cultivars, while the lowest similarity index (0.220) was observed between Ewais and Langra cultivars.