Morphological and Genetic Analysis of Momordica cochinchinensis (Lour.) Spreng. (Gac) from Different Accessions in Malaysia

Momordica cochinchinensis or gac fruit is a 'superfruit' that well-known in Vietnam. Gac an orange ovoid shape and has soft spiny texture. In Malaysia, new less known plant. This study aimed to characterize using morphological analysis involving both vegetative reproductive parts the genetic diversity by Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis. Four different accessions were collected from areas (Kota Damansara (Selangor), Melaka Tengah (Melaka), Hulu Langat (Selangor) Kuantan (Pahang)) cultivated under tropical conditions Kuantan, Pahang. The showed differences characters. Generally, fruits reddish-orange colour, leaf was dark green on adaxial part light abaxial part, female male flower yellow white color. weight ranged 193.72 g (GD) 334.70 (GH) with varied shapes spike density. DNA extraction following CTAB method. All 30 primers high levels of polymorphism (83%) information content (PIC) mean 0.48. Nei's distance coefficient between 0.27 0.6 value 0.41. Dendrogram based UPGMA grouped four into two main groups. Cluster I consisted accession GD, GM GH while cluster II only GX. Results molecular diversities all studied.