IDENTIFICATION OF MISCANTHUS VARIETIES BY THEIR ISOZYMES

With the aim of testing the possibility of identifying Miscanthus vari eties, zymograms of 13 isozymes from 65 plants of M. sinensis, M. x gi ganteus and M. sacchariflorus were analysed using starch-gel electroph oresis. The zymograms of root, rhizome, and leaf tissues were compared . After similarity between the zymograms of the different types of tis sues had been established, the tissue of young leaves was used for ana lysis. The zymograms of the different isozymes are variable in most ca ses and show as many as nine patterns. The large variation between the varieties allows an identification of each of the varieties analysed. About half of the plants could be attributed to M. x giganteus. In th is group of plants, different variants were found in the isozymes of d iaphorases and glutamate-oxalacetate-transaminases. These variants mig ht indicate that M. x giganteus includes more than one genotype. Some of the plants which were assumed to belong to M. x giganteus could cle arly be excluded from this variety. Although some of the varieties can only be unequivocally identified by their flowers, it is possible to analyse the isozymes even in the dormant state of the rhizomes, thus, this method offers a simple way of identifying Miscanthus varieties by the principle of exclusion, independent of the physiological state of the plant.