In order to evaluate the potential of RAPD markers to
characterize the genetic diversity of gerbera accessions in
comparison to the main horticultural characteristics employed,
comparative analyses of genetic diversity were performed using
the information from the afore mentioned markers and the
botanical descriptions of 28 accessions with available information
(Table 1). Analyses were carried out by transformation of the
botanical data into a disjunctive table (presence or absence of the
class for each characteristic) to obtain the genetic similarity indices
for both data sets (=Jaccard). Despite the botanical data are only
from four characteristics, the average value of genetic similarity
found for RAPD markers was of 0.58 against 0.23 for the botanical
descriptions, indicating a greater ability of RAPD markers to reveal
the genetic divergence among the accessions investigated in this
work than the botanical description. Moreover, the botanical
descriptors were not able to discriminate between the accessions
Avana and Amazone, whereas RAPD markers allowed the
distinction among all 42 accessions investigated in the comparison
between the datasets. In contrast, null similarity values were
absent from the analysis of RAPD markers whereas the botanical
descriptions have provided several comparisons of total diver