Molecular Diversity Analysis of Somaclonal Variants of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Markers

Aims: An experiment was conducted to analyze the DNA fingerprinting and genetic diversity of nine potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) somaclonal variants and three check varieties.

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was carried out at the Biotechnology laboratory of the Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh during November, 2013 to December, 2014.

Methodology: The somaclonal variants investigated were SIP-3, SIP-5, SVP-6, SVP-18, SVP-19, SVP-25, SVP-55, SVP-56 and SVP-68, while the check varieties were Cardinal, Diamant and Asterix. Six RAPD primers were used to perform PCR reaction after genomic DNA was extracted from young leaves.

Results: The selected 6 primers produced total 54 distinct and differential amplified DNA bands of size range 88 bp to 3265 bp, where 47 bands (~87%) were polymorphic and 7 bands (~13%) were monomorphic. The pair-wise inter-genotype similarity indices were ranged from 61.59% to 93.55% with an average of 74.31%. The Nei’s genetic distance among 12 potato genotypes was estimated from 0.0972 to 0.6217 whereas, genetic identity was between 0.5370 and 0.9074. Here, the distantly linked accessions among the somaclonal variations with check varieties were SVP-6 (to Cardinal and Diamant) and SVP-25 (to Asterix). In addition, the UPGMA dendrogram segregated the 12 potato genotypes into two broad clusters containing 8 and 4 genotypes, respectively. Furthermore, the dendrogram also displayed the highest genetic distance between SVP-6 vs SVP-68 genotype pair.

Conclusion: Significant relationship and diversity were found among the studied 12 genotypes. This genetic diversity among the potato genotypes would be utilized for further potato improvement.