Phylogenetic Relationship Between Some Cultivars of Cucurbita Species in Southwest Nigeria Using RAPD Analysis

Cucurbits are economic crops in Nigeria, which are not only taken to overcome nutritional deficiency but are also good sources of income for farmers. The taxonomy of the members of the family Cucurbitaceae had been a challenge to botanists in Nigeria as a result of many overlaps in the group, hence confusion the proper identification of the members. Randomized Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were employed to study the genetic diversity among species of Curcubita species collected from three Southwestern states in Nigeria. Six out of the thirteen studied primers amplified a total of 74 polymorphic bands and 83 Allele numbers. The polymorphic bands exhibited a very high percentage of polymorphism. The result of the cluster analysis showed that the least distance was observed between samples collected from ONWL II, IFCL III, ISEL III, and IFCL I. The result also showed that samples from the three study locations (ONWL II, IFCL III, and ISEL III) exhibit the strongest level of homogeneity. The high level of heterozygosity of Curcubita species can provide valuable information to improve the breeding of Curcubita . It can also be useful in studying germplasm material or gene flow for further evaluation. Keywords: Curcurbitae, RAPD, Heterozygosity, Polymorphism, Accession, Allele DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/13-12-04 Publication date: July 31 st 2023