PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE WILD TAXA OF THE BRASSICA-OLERACEA L GROUP (2N=18) USING RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA ASSAY

The aim of this study was to help establish the phylogenetic relations hips between the wild taxa of the Brassica oleracea complex using a ra ndom amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay and also to test the poten tial use of RAPDs in discriminating among closely related species, A t otal of 22 populations belonging to 15 taxa were analysed; 20 arbitrar y primers were studied and six were selected for the detection of 129 reproducible polymorphic fragments, ranging from 200 to 2400 base pair s. These genetic markers, which allowed us to distinguish the differen t taxa, were used to study the phylogenetic and evolutive relationship s of the wild Brassica (n = 9) species. The dendrogram obtained reflec ts the already accepted genetic relationships among the 15 taxa. Three clearly separated branches are shown: the Western group, the Sicilian group and the Aegean group, The maximum diversity is detected in the Aegean group and the highest similarity coefficient is shown by the Si cilian group, results which are consistent with previous phytochemical analyses.