Assessment of genetic diversity among the main fourteen cocoa varieties in Vietnam using plant c/d sequences

This work focused on clarifying the genetic diversity of fourteen cocoa clones in Vietnam. Primers plant c and plant d were used to analyze the genetic relationship. All detected band were encoded into binary matrix and the dendrogram was generated using the program NTSYS-PC 2.1 The similarity matrix was subjected to cluster analysis by unweighted pair group method for arithmetic mean (UPGMA). The genetic clustering of 14 Cocoa varieties showed genetic differences ranged from 0 to 41%. At around 59% similarity, fourteen TD clones could be divided into three groups: A, B, and C. Group A had ten clones (TD1, TD2, TD3, TD5, TD6, TD7, TD8, TD9, TD11, TD12), in group B there were 2 clones (TD10 and TD13), and two clones belonged to group C (TD14 va TD15). Group B with 80% homologous had a relationship closer than groups A and C. Two clones in group A correlated approximately 76.4% similarity and group C showed 73% similarity rate. This result contributed important signification for Vietnamese Cocoa breeding and selection cultivar activities.