Identifying Osmanthus fragrans cultivars in Guilin City and evaluating their genetic relationships by RAPD markers

Random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD)markers were applied to analyze 23 Osmanthus fragrans cultivars in Guilin City. Among the total 193 fragments generated by 20 selected primers(among 100 primers),114 appeared to be polymorphic(59.1%). Cluster analysis based on the RAPD results was performed and dendrogram was constructed. These cultivars tested by RAPD were divided into 4 cultivar groups. The result was consistent with that from traditional taxonomy analysis. The RAPD study illustrated that it is possible to analyze intra-cultivar variation of O.fragrans cultivars on the basis of genotype rather than phenotype and therefore, offered significant evidences in solving taxonomic problem of O.fragrans cultivars in Guilin City.