Abstract

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a widely consumed food crop and a primary protein source for many of the indigenous inhabitants of the Andean region in South America. Identification of quinoa cultivars has been based on phenotypic characters. In the present work, the level of polymorphism and the genetic relationship were studied by means of molecular markers using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique and twenty morphological characters. Fourteen accessions of quinoa collected in the Araucania and Los Rios Regions, three Andean accessions, and one commercial cultivar were analyzed. Two wild parents were included as outgroup controls. A similarity tree-diagram was made, based on all the AFLP bands generated in the range between 70 and 300 base pairs. With these tools, it was possible to identify molecular differences and similarities that might be associated with important morphological traits such as grain color, panicle color, phenology and geographic distribution.

Key words: Chenopodium quinoa, cluster analysis, molecular markers.