A LOW COPY NUMBER SORGHUM DNA-SEQUENCE THAT DETECTS HYPERVARIABLE ECORV FRAGMENTS

A sorghum genomic DNA clone that hybridized on Southern blots in simpl e but different patterns to fragments produced by digestion of DNA fro m the parents of an F-2 mapping population was hybridized to EcoRV-dig ested DNA from 53 accessions. Forty-six different fragment patterns we re observed, each comprised of from one to ten bands. Much less variab ility was detected in EcoRI than EcoRV digests of a selected subset of the accessions. Base-sequence analysis of the clone did not reveal a functional identity for the sequence and the clone does not contain re peated sequences often associated with hypervariable loci. Clones such as this will be especially useful in evaluating germplasm diversity a nd in identifying the potential parentage of hybrids.