Variability analysis of 'Persian' acid lime tree selections using agronomic and molecular markers

'Persian' acid lime (PAL) is the most important triploid commercial citrus crop planted in the world. Little is known about the genetic variability of the selections used in Brazil. Therefore, 25 genotypes originating from the PAL, and three control species, Citrus sunki, C. limon, and C. aurantiifolia, were assessed using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) molecular markers and agronomic traits of the fruit. The dendrograms were designed using the mean Euclidean distance for the physicochemical attributes of the fruit (weight, length, diameter, peel color, peel thickness, number of seeds, juice yield, titratable acidity, soluble solids, and ratio) and the Jaccard distances using the data from the ISSR and IRAP molecular markers. In the physicochemical analysis, the genotypes were grouped according to species. The trait that contributed most to the diversity among accessions was the number of seeds. The 17 ISSR primers produced 69 polymorphic bands in the molecular analysis, and the seven IRAP primers generated 30 polymorphic bands. The markers detected polymorphisms within and among the PALs; two groups were formed within the PALs.