Genetic relatedness among soybean genotypes using DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF), RFLP, and pedigree

Numerous methods now exist for plant breeders and others to estimate genetic relationships among different germplasm. Two of the most commonly used methods have been restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and pedigrees. The objective of this study was to compare a relatively new method, DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF), which is a short, arbitrary-primer, polymerase chain reaction (PCT)-amplification methods, to RFLP and pedigree. methods for genetic distance estimation among soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genotypes. The genotypes consisted of agronomically important soybean lines Archer, BSR101, Forrest, Hartwig, 9171, 9341, 9392, 9593, S8330 and the plant introduction, PI437.654. The 10 genotypes were evaluated by means of 53 RFLP clones, a subset of 12 RFLP clones, seven DAF primers, and available pedigrees. The DAF data set and the subset of 12 RFLP clones each consisted of 18 markers. Far each method, the data were used to calculate the 45 pairwise genetic-distance estimates among the varieties using the average linkage algorithm in SAS. The genetic-distance estimates were correlated from 0.63 to 0.89 among the four methods. Dendrograms based on each method were therefore considered similarly reliable. For varietal identification, the DAF and RFLP markers distinguished the varieties with similar efficiency. We conclude that both DAF and RFLP marker technologies and pedigrees are useful tools for estimating genetic distances in soybean.