EFFICIENT IDENTIFICATION OF 46 IMPORTANT STRAWBERRY CULTIVARS USING RAPD MARKERS WITH A MANUAL CULTIVAR IDENTIFICATION DIAGRAM STRATEGY

Abstract

DNA markers are potentially useful for plant cultivar identification. However, its use is limited due to various drawbacks, especially how to use marker information to efficiently identify cultivars. In this study, we applied a very new approach, called the manual cultivar identification diagram (MCID), to use RAPD fingerprints in distinguishing 46 strawberry cultivars after the optimization of RAPD through choosing 11 nt primers and strict screening PCR annealing temperatures. The advantage of this MCID strategy includes use of few primers in the separation of the strawberry cultivars and the real utility of cultivar identification (CID) in practical strawberry cultivar identification by the corresponding primers marked on the diagram. The MCID approach can serve strawberry cultivar identification efficiently and provide information to separate the groups of cultivars studied. The reliability and efficiency of this method was checked and verified. To the best of our knowledge, this new approach is the most efficient and reliable strategy using the power of DNA markers in identification of existing plant cultivars, identification of new plant cultivars, protection of cultivar-rights and also beneficial for the nursery industry for early identification of seedlings.