| dc.description.abstract | SUMMARY
Taro (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) is a tropical plant that is grown primarily for its edible
corms, which are root vegetables that are commonly known as talas, kalo, dasheen, and
godere. It is widely spread and cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions, including
Kalimantan Island, Indonesia. Taro is considered to be one of the oldest cultivated plants in
this region and has the highest level of polymorphism. Genetic diversity in crop plants is
needed to assemble germplasm for tolerance and further development against biotic and
abiotic stresses. Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) is one of the molecular
methods that can be used to identify and describe genetic diversity of taro. The present
research aimed to determine genetic diversity of taro accessions on the basis of RAPD
molecular markers. A total of 67 taro accessions were evaluated by using 12 RAPD primers
during 2016–17 at the Department of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia.
Coefficient analysis based on Gower general similarity and cluster analysis were also
conducted through the unweighted pair group method (UPGMA) by using MVSP version 3.1
software. Results revealed that the RAPD profiles had 105 amplified fragments with 97%
polymorphism. The total fragment numbers comprised 102 with polymorphic banding
patterns and three with monomorphic banding patterns. The most varied and polymorphic
band was OPH-1, which had 17 banding patterns. RAPD was concluded to be capable of
differentiating C. esculenta and Colocasia affinis on the basis of banding patterns. Specific
bands for primers OPH-1, OPB-5, OPB-7, and OPA-17 were observed to separate C. affinis
landraces from the accessions of other taro species that were assumed to be hybrids. The
dendrogram based on UPGMA analysis showed that taro accessions from Kalimantan Island
grouped into two major clusters, i.e., cluster I with one accession and cluster II with 66
accessions. | en_US |
