Classification of Australian garlic cultivars by DNA fingerprinting

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) reproduces only by vegetative propagation yet displays considerable morphological variation within and between cultivars. The origins of Australian cultivars are uncertain and the descriptive names applied to them may not reflect their derivation. Twenty common Australian garlic cultivars were analysed by the random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) technique using 20 random decamer primers. The amplification products of 5 of these primers resulted in 65 clear polymorphic bands. These bands were transformed into a binary format, and genetic similarities calculated using a simple matching coefficient. The similarities were used to perform a cluster analysis and produce a dendrogram grouping the cultivars. Bolting and intermediate/nonbolting types could be differentiated from each other. These could be further subdivided into 4 groups based on length of growing season.