EVALUACIóN DE LA VARIABILIDAD GENéTICA DE CLONES DE CAUCHO NATURAL PRESENTES EN LA COLECCIóN CLONAL DEL INSTITUTO SINCHI, MEDIANTE EL USO DE DESCRIPTORES MORFOLóGICOS

genetic diversity of natural rubber clones of the in sinchi institute’s clone collection was assessed. clones of hevea brasiliensis (willd. ex adr. de juss.) muell.arg., hevea spp. (h. brasiliensis x h. benthamiana), and three more species of hevea genus are a part of the collection. seventy-two materials were characterized with twenty-eight morphological descriptors. they were later used to generate a similarity matrix through the analysis of multi-categorical variables, and to obtain clusters based on the matrix. a low variability between clones of h. brasiliensis and h. spp. was observed, presumably because of the direct descendants of most of the materials from crosses of parental pb 80, pb 5/51, pb 49 and tjir, exception made of clone gu 1410. clustering between some materials product of exclusive cross of pb series, a group between clones descendants of parental clones pb 86, and clustering between descendants of parental clones pb 5/51, were observed. clones from other species of hevea differ from this big group.