Isozyme analysis of indigenous cassava germplasm for identification of duplicates

Isozyme analysis was utilized for identification of duplicates in indigenous collection of cassava germplasm. 786 indigenous accessions of cassava were screened for 11 key morphological characters and the morphological duplicates were identified. Two hundred and eighteen accessions of cassava consisting of ninety one sets of morphological duplicates were analysed for esterase isozyme polymorphism. Thirty seven polymorphic bands were obtained, showing high polymorphism for this enzyme. Thirty seven double sets and 17 multiple sets were found to be similar at isozyme level. These isozyme duplicates will be further analysed for DNA similarity before eliminating them from the field germplasm. The dissimilar sets showed variation in minor morphological characters, thus confirming the relation between isozyme polymorphism and phenotypic variation.