Macadamia is one of the most valuable commercial nuts and its culture is a good alternative for small farmers or for large properties with a low capacity for the mechanization of its areas. Macadamia clones, due to their morphological proximity exhibited some difficulties in field identification that could difficult the right plant distribution. The objective of this work was to genetically characterize, by RAPD markers, different macadamia clones under cultivation. Leaves from 'HAES-741', 'HAES-660', 'IAC-920BX', 'IAC-920', 'HAES-344', 'IAC-420', 'HAES-816', 'IAC-1.21', 'Shimada', 'IAC - Campinas B', 'IAC - Campinas A' and 'HAES-Aloha' were donated by Queen Nut Macadâmia. DNA was extracted and amplified with 15 primers and the binary data (presence/absence of bands) collected was used and dendrograms constructed. Clone identification, via RAPD was possible using primers Op G18, C19 and C7. Most of the genetic variation is inside the Brazilian or Hawaiian groups rather than between the groups and could allow inbreeding or crossing between distant clones.
Nut; clone identification; DNA
