FINGERPRINTING CROP VARIETIES

Descriptive names given to landraces or cultivated varieties illustrate the practical necessity for farmers to identify sources of seed of proved performance. In many cases, processors and end-use consumers also want to know varietal identity. Usage of protein and DNA descriptors has propelled the science of both human and cultivated plant identification into the mainstream of peer-reviewed and widely accepted science. Morphological descriptions can provide unique identification of cultivated varieties. Morphologies reflect not only the genetic constitution of the cultivar, but also the interaction of the genotype with the environment (G x E) within which it is expressed. Proteins and DNA can be used to provide varietal profiles. They are in popular usage because the variation for these markers is ubiquitous and this variation can be understood in genetic terms. Most advances in varietal descriptions will involve the use of DNA as a descriptor. Some technical developments coming from other genome mapping and sequencing projects will also come to bear on cultivar fingerprinting in the future. Intense impetus to these efforts comes from the desirability to use genetic marker data in applied plant-breeding programs. © 1992, Academic Press Inc.