Comparison of two different electrophoretic methods in studying the genetic diversity among plantains (Musa spp.) using ISSR markers.

Inter simple sequence repeat markers were employed for the genotyping of 16 plantain ecotypes. Two different electrophoretic systems namely conventional gel electrophoresis (CVGE) and fully automated high-resolution CGE were used to evaluate the genetic diversity. Comparative analysis indicated that all parameters related to marker informativeness were higher in CGE except polymorphic information content. But genetic diversity parameters like effective number of alleles, Nei's gene diversity (1973) and Shannon's information index showed higher values (1.52 +/- 0.12, 0.34 +/- 0.05 and 0.52 +/- 0.05, respectively) in CVGE as against CGE (1.29 +/- 0.04, 0.22 +/- 0.02 and 0.38 +/- 0.03, respectively) system. The unweighed pair group method with arithmetic averages was used to obtain the dendrogram for both analyses. The results of dendrogram and principal component analysis were found to be consistent in both systems except for some minor disagreements. The clone-specific bands could be used in the identification and development of SCAR markers. Inter simple sequence repeat markers used in this study provided sufficient polymorphism and reproducible banding pattern for evaluating the genetic diversity of different plantain ecotypes. Lack of accuracy and consistency of the CVGE warrants the employment of high-throughput CGE for diversity analysis as it provided better separation of bands with higher resolution.