THE DETECTION OF SOMACLONAL VARIANTS OF BEET USING RAPD

Plantlets were regenerated by adventitious shoot budding in tissue cul ture from leaf explants of a single genotype of sugar beet, DNA was ex tracted from the parental plant and from 120 regenerants. RAPD analysi s was carried out using five decanucleotide primers; 4,557 RAPD marker bands were examined and two polymorphisms were observed. Thirty secon dary regenerants were then derived, using the same tissue culture tech nique, from thirty of the primary regenerants. Again RAPD analysis was employed and a single band polymorphism was observed out of 1,050 ban ds examined. The overall frequency of detection of somaclonal polymorp hisms using RAPD (3 in 5,607 = 0.05%) is similar to frequencies previo usly reported using isozyme and RFLP technologies.