APPLICATION OF MOLECULAR METHODS AND STATISTICAL-ANALYSES FOR DISCRIMINATION OF ACCESSIONS AND CLONES OF VETIVER GRASS

Because (i) origins and genealogies of vetiver grass have been poorly documented, and (ii) morphological uniformity and infrequent flowering precluded accurate identification of selected clones, an investigation was undertaken to link molecular methods with rigorous biometric analysis to discriminate accessions and clones. Successful DNA profiling is highly dependent on the reproducibility of the assay. Our ability to generate consistent results may have been a result of (i) genomic DNA quality, (ii) rigorous oligonucleotide primer selection, and (iii) DNA amplification protocol stringency. Because of the low level of replicate variability, we were able to bring a high level of resolution to the analysis of identity. Though genetic redundancy may be more difficult to establish than genetic uniqueness, the data support with a high degree of certainty that the accessions 'Huffman' and 'Boucard' were essentially the same genotype. A contrasting case to the Huffman-Boucard example was found among the putative clones of 'PI 196257'. Our analysis indicated that each clone of PI 196257 was genetically unique.