Genetic Diversity of Celosia Variants in East Java Based on Polyphenol Oxidase-PPO Genes

PPO (polyphenol oxidase) is a plastid, nuclear-encoded enzyme widely distributed in the plants species. In green plants the PPO genes involved in pigment formation. PPO is one of the main enzymes involved in biosynthesis of betalain pigments. Celosia is a member of Amaranthaceae that produces betalain pigment (red-violet betacyanins and yellow-orange betaxanthins). Various colour of Celosia inflorescences/flowers in East Java led to the idea to investigate the genetic diversity based on PPO genes. By using PCR-RFLP methods the DNA sequences all Celosia variants showed high genetic diversity. Phylogeny analysis classified the variants into two clusters based on latitude.