Molecular Markers in the Identification of Some Early Flowering Curcuma L. (Zingiberaceae) Species

In this paper, isozymes have been used for the first time as tools to aid identification of some Curcuma L. species that are still taxonomically confused. These markers were employed to confirm the taxonomic identification and to distinguish the taxa analysed; the results were used to describe the relationship within the early-flowering group. Twenty-one isozymes were initially tested; out of these, eight isozymes showed reliable polymorphism to distinguish between the taxa analysed. Patterns from isozyme data were analysed using cluster analysis and UPGMA to produce a dendrogram depicting the degree of relationship among the species.