Genetic variability assessment of accessions of Corchorus olitorius L. using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Corchorus olitorius is one of the neglected indigenous leafy vegetables in Nigeria. Majority of the accessions of this species stored at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) Moor Plantation, Ibadan, Nigeria, have only been characterized morphologically. To provide further information on the extent of genetic diversity, this study was initiated to assess the genetic variabilities among 14 accessions of the species using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Seven polypeptide bands were obtained ranging from 9.73 to 88.79 KDa thus depicting variations in the banding patterns of the accessions. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean algorithm (UPGMA) dendrogram grouped the 14 accessions into two clusters and five groups with 50% of the accessions in one group. Accession 3 which was obtained from Lagos state was observed to be a very distant relative of the other accessions and so could be combined in a breeding programme with any of the others. Keywords: Genetic, variability, Corchorus olitorius, accessions African Journal of Biotechnology , Vol 13(19), 2004-2009