STUDIES ON THE GENETIC-VARIABILITY OF POT ATO GENOTYPES USING THE RAPD METHOD

The Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) method was used to chara cterise 23 potato varieties and lines in order to study the genetic va riability of potato varieties bred in Keszthely, to compare them with known foreign varieties, and to determine the suitability of variety i dentification at the DNA level for the characterisation of in vitro ge ne bank stocks. Thirty decanucleotide primers with different sequences were used in the experiments, 21 of which proved to be satisfactory. In the course of the examinations 94 RAPD fragments were used to descr ibe the genotypes. A total of 45 individual patterns were found for 20 genotypes, but the data indicated that all the genotypes examined cou ld be distinguished if more primers were employed. The matrix of the R APD bands was used to calculate similarity indexes and to compile a de ndogram. The groups of genotypes created in the dendogram gave a good reflection of the relationships between the varieties, thus proving th e reliability of the method.