Genetic Diversity Among Commercial Potato Cultivars Using RAPD Analysis

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum subsp. tuberosum) are one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide and contain hundreds of cultivars with similar morphological parameters that are commercially produced. The identification of such genetic diversity represents an important factor in crop breeding and improvement as well as market pricing. This study genotyped twelve potato commercial cultivars using six RAPD primers. The results showed high polymorphism among all cultivars. The primers produced 61 bands in total. The number of bands per cultivar ranged from 7-14. The genetic distance among the cultivars ranged from 0.1148 – 0.3934. The closest cultivars were Disree and Lady Balfour and the furthest one, were Ospery and Winston. Primers 5 and 6 produced the highest number of genetic polymorphic bands with numbers (14&12; respectively) and were able to identify and differentiate all examined cultivars. In conclusion, RAPD primers might be useful in commercial potato cultivar identification.