Discrimination of oats (Avena sativa L.) cultivars using isozyme markers

The present investigation was carried out to discriminate the oat cultivars based on isozymic banding patterns. The pattern of isozymes such as peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, esterase and amylase in the selected 11 oats cultivars were studied. The enzyme extracts prepared from seven days aged seedlings of each cultivars were analyzed through polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and the cultivars were differentiated based on the presence or absence of bands and intensity of bands in each isozymes. In peroxidase, totally four bands were recorded, and among these, three bands were common for all cultivars; the band at Rf value 0.944 showed polymorphism. In polyphenol oxidase, totally three bands were recorded; the absence of band at Rf value 0.797 in OS 7, HJ 8 and OL 9 are used for differentiation. In esterase, totally six bands were noticed, the presence of band at Rf value 0.857 in OS 7 and HJ 8 are used for discrimination and in amylase, totally seven bands were recorded. Among the cultivars, variations in band intensity helped for cultivar identification. Key words: Oats, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), isozymes, cultivar identification