RANDOMLY AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNAS IN THE CULTIVATED STRAWBERRY, FRAGARIA X ANANASSA

Eight strawberry cultivars or advanced selections from the Univ. of California, Davis, breeding program were screened for polymorphisms using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 43 random 10-base DNA primers. Over 60% of the primers screened resulted in replicable polymorphic banding patterns (amplification profiles), and a subset of ten primers that exhibited high levels of amplification profile polymorphism was used to identify each of the eight genotypes uniquely. There was also a significant product-moment correlation (r = 0.64, P < 0.01) between number of shared amplification profile phenotypes and pairwise coefficient of coancestry. This technology shows high promise as a means of verifying the identity of cultivars and developing a genetic map of the octoploid cultivated strawberry.