Despite the variability observed in sweet potato germplasm found in the Rio Grande do Sul State, many populations can not be morphologically characterized without the use of additional methods, such as isoenzyme analysis. The aim of this work was to evaluate the morphological and isoenzymatic characteristics of ten accesses of the genetic resources program of Embrapa Clima Temperado. Four morphological descriptors were used, which allowed to distinguish six varieties. Polyacrylamyde electrophoresis was used to analyze peroxidase, aspartate transaminase and esterase isoenzymes. Maximum similarity (1.00), estimated through Jaccard coefficient, was observed only in comparisons between Americana and Morada INTA. Varieties were classified into two groups and four subgroups, using UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages). All accesses could be differentiated. The results obtained indicated that isoenzyme analysis, associated to morphological evaluations, can be succesfully used to characterize sweet potato germplasm available in the Rio Grande do Sul.
peroxidase; aspartate transaminase; esterase
