Hybrid authentication in upland cotton through RAPD analysis

The investigation pertaining to the hybrid identification in Gossypium hirsutum L. through Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was conducted on 3 genotypes (CIM-511, SLS1 and Paymaster) and their hybrids (SLS1 × CIM-511, Paymaster × CIM-511, Paymaster × SLS1) at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan during 2007. Sixteen RAPD markers developed by Genelink, Company were utilized for this purpose. DNA was extracted from young leaves of the plants and quantified by spectrophotometer and subjected to RAPD analysis. These 16 primers amplified a total of 518 fragments in the parents and hybrids and out which 76 loci were polymorphic. On an average of 7.13 bands per primer were observed with maximum of eight bands and minimum of six. The primer GLG-17 was found to produce 87.5 % polymorphic fragments. The lowest polymorphism (42.85%) was seen in primer GLH-2. Comparison of the RAPD banding pattern of the parents with the respective hybrids clearly identified genuine hybrids. The cluster dendrogram based on similarity matrix obtained by unweighted pair group method using arithmetic average (UPGMA), also revealed the same results. This study suggested that RAPD analysis can be utilized for both reliable and less time consuming identification of hybrids.