GENETIC DIVERSITY AND SEX IDENTIFICATION IN Genipa americana L

Ten genotypes of Genipa americana L. located in Arauá (Sergipe, Brazil) were analyzed using RAPD markers. The genotypes were selected according to sex - five females and five males - in an attempt to find a molecular marker associated with the sex prediction. 74 DNA fragments were generated by 20 primers, 85% of which were polymorphic. Results show a quantitative genetic diversity value of 0.28 and a Shannon index of 0.42 in the population. The similarity among the specimens according to Jaccard’s coefficient ranged from 0.22 to 0.75. The genetic diversity was relatively large among these individuals.