Isozyme and RAPD Analysis of Cassava Germplasm : Identification of Duplicates in Exotic Collection

Esterase isozyme polymorphism was used to study duplicate accessions in cassava germplasm. 44 sets of morphological duplicates were analysed for variability at isozyme level. 34 different bands were obtained. 28 sets were found to be duplicates based on isozyme banding pattern. RAPD analysis was done on 14 sets of isozyme duplicates using 3 primers and they exhibited dissimilar banding pattern. Those duplicate sets which differed in isozyme patterns were critically analysed for minor morphological variation. It was found that these sets showed variations for characters other than the key ones and also in intensity of expression of key characters. Details are discussed in the paper.