Genetic Variability of Oil Palm in Mexico: An Assessment Based on Microsatellite Markers

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has become the largest source of vegetable oil in the world. It is known that all existing genotypes of this species are related, so their genetic variability is considered to be low. In Mexico, all oil palm plantations are located in the southeast of the country, and they are established with different origins seeds, which has caused poor yields and resulted in the need to establish a genetic improvement program. Therefore, in this study, the extent of genetic diversity among 151 oil palm accessions from all producing regions of Mexico was assessed with twenty simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and seven random amplified microsatellite (RAM) markers. The markers utilized proved to be useful in revealing high existing genetic variability, with a total of 1218 and 708 alleles detected and polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.96 and 0.91 for RAM and SSR, respectively. The genetic distance among all accessions of oil palm collected ranged between 31% and 82% for similarity. Accessions from Tabasco and Veracruz presented the greatest and smallest genetic diversity, respectively. These results can allow breeding strategies to be established for the genetic improvement of this crop in Mexico.