Caracterización del lirio azteca mediante marcadores morfológicos y moleculares

aztec lily [sprekelia formosissima (l.) herbert] is a species native to méxico. the scarlet color and shape of its flowers gives it great potential for use as an ornamental plant and as cut flower, potted flower and landscaping. therefore, we evaluated four botanical varieties of s. formosissima using 29 varietal descriptors and five anchored primers (assr), in order to learn about the efficiency of each of the markers in the differentiation of varieties of s. formosissima, and also determine the possible relationship between the genetic variability and geographical altitude of collection of such varieties. the assr primers generated 57 to 100 % polymorphism. with three of the five primers we could distinguish each one of the varieties, generating a molecular profile for unambiguous identification. the assr were more efficient when detecting a greater genetic variability (dg=0.5) with respect to the morphological ones (dg=0.3). the correlation between genetic distance and altitude for morphological analysis showed to be not significant; likewise, the molecular analysis did not show a correlation between both factors.