Isoenzymatic variability in an apple germplasm bank

Apple (Malusdomestica Borkh.) is a species, which has a very high degree of morphologic and genetic variability. Genetic variability within a group formed by 277 old varieties from Navarra has been studied through isoenzymatic analysis. 14 loci, corresponding to 7 isoenzymatic systems, were visualized, detecting between 1 and 5 alleles per locus. The combinations of all 12 polymorphic isoenzymes allowed the identification of 263 isoenzymatic groups, 251 of which include a single accession. Average similarity for the different accessions in the bank was J = 0.58 and cophenetic correlation between the similarity matrix and dendrogram was good (r = 0.80). Thus, the groups obtained reflect taxonomic relationships between accessions correctly.