GENETIC DIVERSITY IN PITAHAYA (Hylocereus undatus Haworth. Britton and Rose)

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the genetic diversity in natural populations of pitahaya (Hylocereus undatus. Haworth, Britton and Rose.). Fifty pitahaya collections from nine states of México and one accession from Colombia were evaluated using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. High genetic variability (92.5 % of polymorphism) was detected between the pitahaya populations, and fingerprinting allowes to identify individual accessions. The collection from Colombia was genetically similar to the majority of Mexican collections, suggesting an common origin. Additionally, a group of collections from Hidalgo, México State and San Luis Potosi was detected, which were genetically different from the remaining collections, suggesting that in México there is endemic genetic variability and that this country is one of various possible centers of diversity of Hylocereus undatus.