USING RANDOMLY AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA (RAPD) MARKERS TO IDENTIFY ANNONA CULTIVARS

The native American genus Annona contains many species that are cultiv ated for their edible fruit, including the custard apple (A. reticulat a L.), soursop (A. mnricata L.), cherimoya (A. cherimola L.), sugar ap ple (A. squarnosa L.), and interspecific hybrids, the atemoyas. RAPD a nalysis of A. cherimola 'Campa' and 'Jete,'A. squamosa 'Lessard,' and the atemoyas 'Ubranitzki,' 'Malali,' and 'Kaspi' resulted in very dist inctive patterns, indicating that RAPD markers, may be an efficient me thod of fingerprinting genotypes within and between Annona species. Al l 15 primers used generated repeatable, polymorphic patterns. An F-1 p opulation of 'Jete' x 'Lessard' was analyzed to determine the inherita nce of the RAPD banding patterns, Fifty-two polymorphic loci were iden tified, which segregated in an expected Mendelian fashion,