ISHS Acta Horticulturae 546: International Symposium on Molecular Markers for Characterizing Genotypes and Identifying Cultivars in Horticulture
DNA FINGERPRINTING OF SWEETPOTATO (Ipomoea batatas L.): TWO CASE STUDIES IN AFRICA |
| Authors: | C. McGregor, M. Greyling, J. Banda, S. Laurie |
| Keywords: | sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas L., RAPDs, SSRs, Africa |
| DOI: | 10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.546.28 |
| Abstract:
Sweetpotato is the seventh most important crop in the world. Large germplasm collections with hundreds of accessions are maintained. The accessions are traditionally classified on the basis of morphology, but it is suspected that numerous duplicates are present. The problem is increased by the fact that the same accessions are often named differently in different countries. In order to investigate whether DNA fingerprinting can assist with the identification of accessions, two studies were done. In the first study, twenty-one accessions from the South African genebank were compared with 6 landraces collected on a field trip. In the second study, four accessions, suspected to be identical, but with different names were compared. In both these cases, the RAPD and SSR techniques were used. In the first study, polymorphisms were found between all 21 accessions from the genebank, as well as the 6 landraces. In the other study, no polymorphisms could be found between the four accessions with either of these techniques. This data, together with the morphological data, therefore suggest that these accessions are, in fact, the same. These results clearly show the usefulness of DNA fingerprinting for the identification of sweetpotato accessions, and the elimination of duplicates from genebanks around the world. | |
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