Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Genotypes Using Morphological Characters and AFLP Analysis

For this purpose, 18 cucumber lines were evaluated for their genetic diversity using six morphological characterizations (plant morphology, plant length, length of leaf blade, fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit stem length) and eight AFLP markers. These AFLP primer combinations amplified well and also showed polymorphism. Thus, 1975 AFLP fragments were obtained and 1468 fragments were polymorphic (75.34%). Dendrograms were drawn using UPGMA (Unweighted Pair Group Method) arithmetical averages and according to the UPGMA dendrogram, the cucumber accessions clustered into two main groups. The genetic distances of the dendrogram varied between 0.92 and 0.96. Cluster analysis based on morphological data discriminated all lines into three major clusters in UPGMA dendrogram. The similarity coefficient ranged between 0.888 and 0.982 indicating that the cucumber lines used in the study have a low level of genetic variation. Results obtained from the phylogenetic dendrogram by 8 pairs of AFLP primers were consistent with those from the UPGMA clustering analysis, which were in according with the morphological taxonomy on cucumber.