GENETIC DIVERSITY OF SULAWESI EBONY (Diospyros celebica BAKH) BASED ON MICROSATELLITE MARKERS : CASE STUDY IN EDUCATION FOREST HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY

Ebony (Diospyros celebica Bakh) is an endemic tropical tree species to Sulawesi. According to the IUCN, Ebony is now categorized as ???vulnerable??? species. Conservation effort and breeding strategies should be carried out to prevent its extinction. The study of genetic diversity using SSR marker can asses polymorphism through banding patterns from amplified DNA. The genetic diversity of 164 individual Ebony trees from Education Forest Hasanuddin University, Maros provenance were analyzed using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. Investigations were undertaken to analyse genetic diversity of Ebony in Maros provenance at the adult and seedling stages. As many as 92 adults and 72 seedlings were evaluated for genetic diversity by three SSR markers. The analysis were performed using GeneAlex ver 6.5 and DARwin ver 6.0 softwares. The average number of alleles at adults and seedling stages were same, five alleles. Result of molecular variance analysis (AMOVA) indicated that the genetic diversity among adults and seedlings, and within adults and seedlings were 5% and 46%, respectively. The heterozygosity of seedling-stage was higher (0.3) than adult stage (0.2). Individuals in adults-stage were clustered within three cluster, whereas in seedling-level tended to cluster within one group. This knowledge of the genetic diversity is potentially useful to improve the current strategies in breeding and germplasm conservation to enhance the ornamental and economic value of ebony