DNA fingerprinting and genetic relationships of potato cultivars (Solanum tuberosum L.) commercially grown in Australia

Abstract

DNA fingerprints of 64 potato cultivars that are commercially grown in Australia were generated using PCR-based RAPD analysis. All 64 cultivars were differentiated by banding patterns obtained from 17 primers that generated 133 polymorphisms. Clonal variants of cvv. Atlantic, Kennebec, Sebago, and Russet Burbank were found to have within-cultivar identical banding patterns. The largest genetic similarity between potato cultivars and the Solanum andigena and Solanum acuale outgroups were 0.5 and 0.4, respectively. The genetic similarity between only potato cultivars ranged from 0.67 to 0.9. Using similarity data a dendrogram was constructed that showed close genetic relationships between a number of cultivars of similar pedigree. This study has shown that DNA fingerprinting is a useful tool for potato cultivar identification, differentiation, and estimating genetic relationships.