Clustering and evaluation of alfalfa germplasms with different fall dormancy levels by RAPD markers.

RAPD technology was employed to analyze the 25 alfalfa accessions with different fall dormancy levels and the RAPD fingerprinting were constructed.Two independent and effective ways,including unique band types and combination of the band types of different primers,in identification of the alfalfa individuals were proved,which indicates that RAPD is very effective to identify alfalfa germplasms.The genetic distance in tested alfalfa materials was between 4.69 and 8.14,which suggested that the genetic diversity of alfalfa was high and the genetic base was wide.Totally 144 bands were generated with 19 RAPD primers,of which 134(93.05%) were polymorphic,10(6.94%) were monomorphic.The cluster analysis based on RAPD markers revealed that the tested materials belonged to four groups by λCD=7.39.There was a wide genetic difference among the tested materials,which would provide the theoretical base for genetic improvement and selection of cross-bred parents in alfalfa.