Genetic Diversity between Yacon Landraces from Different Countries Based on Random Amplified Polymorphic DNAs

Abstract

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers are widely used for evaluating the genetic relationship of crop germplasm. Five different landraces of yacon (Smallantus sonchifolius (Poepp. and Hendl.) H. Robinson; Asteraceae) collected in various countries and showing different morphological traits were investigated using a total of 61 decamer primers. A total of 282 RAPD markers were scored and 28.7% of them were polymorphic at least within landraces. RAPD markers generated by one primer (OBP14) discriminated between all landraces. Markers were used to calculate genetic similarity coefficient and to build a dendrogram representing the genetic relationship between analysed landraces. The results suggest that RAPD markers could be used as a reliable tool to perform fingerprinting studies in Smallantus sonchifolius genome. This is the first report on the use of RAPDs to evaluate genetic distance and to distinguish between different landraces in yacon.