Short Communication: Genetic similarity analysis of in vitro cultivated pineapple (Ananas comosus) from Sipahutar, North Sumatra, Indonesia using ISSR markers

Sipahutar pineapple from North Sumatra, Indonesia,is considered difficult to breed, resulting in a lack of seedavailability. However, tissue culture allows the emergence of somaclonal variations, especially in plantlets undergoing several subculture stages. This study aimed to identify somaclonal variations in Sipahutar pineapple seedlings generated from in vitro culture using Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers.Fifteen accessions were used in this study consisting ofSipahutar pineapple grown in its original environment,a laboratory environment, acclimatized, and in vitro cultured. Total of 10 primers, of which seven primers detected polymorphisms among the population. This study resulted in alow genetic similarity among the Sipahutar pineapplepopulation. The genetic diversity of Sipahutar pineapple plants propagated by in vitro culture had a similarity level of 75%-94%, showing somaclonal variations in vitro culture. The genetic similarity of pineapple accessions was divided into two main clusters, namely cluster A consisted of 11 accessions and cluster B consisted of 4 accessions. Cluster separation does not correlate to the source ofplant materials studied