Estimation of genetic distance among genotypes of caraway (Carum carvi L.) using RAPD-PCR

Abstract

In order to estimate genetic diversity among starting materials and breeding strains of caraway, a collection of 17 accessions from botanical gardens in Europe, two cultivars ‘Rekord’ and ‘KoÅ„czewicki’, and four own breeding strains were analyzed by RAPD-PCR. The representative samples, each of five individual plants of accession, cultivar or strain, were taken from young rosette leaves. Forty of Genset Oligos RAPD primers were used for analysis and eight of them produced clear and reproducible banding patterns. In total, 62 banding patterns were obtained revealing 23 polymorphic bands, whereas the number of polymorphic bands ranged from two to four for one primer. The GS12 and GS43 primers generated two polymorphic bands, while each of the GS8, GS21, GS22, GS41 and GS53 primers generated three bands. The GS53 primer was the most informative one, revealing 60% of the estimated polymorphism. The estimated value of genetic distance ranged from 0.22 to 0.67. The lowest genetic distance was found between accessions from Cluj and Lousanne (0.22). The highest genetic distance was estimated between accession fromBerlinand the strain no. 6 of cultivar ‘KoÅ„czewicki’ (0.67). UPGMA cluster analysis, based on eight RAPD primers, categorized the analyzed genotypes into four groups.