ABSTRACT:

This study addresses the phylogenetic relationship between Colocasia species by microsatellite markers (SSRs). The plant materials of this study consisted of a total of 36 accessions belonging to C. esculenta, C. gigantea, C. lihengiae, C. menglaensis and two accessions of Alocasia odora (Roxb.) C. Koch. Seven SSR primer combinations produced a total of 97 alleles. The number of alleles per marker ranged from 6 to 18 alleles, with an average of 10.57 alleles per marker. The highest value of PIC found for SSRs was 0.93 and the lowest was 0.64, with a mean value of 0.77. A total of 68 polymorphic alleles with an average of 9.7 alleles per marker, and the highest value of PIC range from 0.8 to 0.6, with a mean value of 0.70 observed in the accessions of C. esculenta. Unweighted pair group method based on arithmetic average (UPGMA) analysis was performed on jaccard’s similarity coefficient matrix. According to the results, two main clusters were developed and C. esculenta, and C. gigantea located in the first main cluster (A). Three wild taro species localized in second main cluster (B). According to this study, the closest species to C. esculenta was C. gigantea. UPGMA analysis separated C. lihengiae and C. menglaensis from C. esculenta. This study revealed that C. lihengiae is similar to C. menglaensis, distinct from C. gigantea; and showed a closer genetic similarity to Alocasia odora than the C. esculenta.