GENOMIC FINGERPRINTS IN THE TRIBE TRITICEAE PRODUCED BY PCR USING A TRANSFER-RNA CONSENSUS PRIMER

Forty-one accessions belonging to ten genera of the tribe Triticeae re presenting both wild and cultivated species were analyzed by polymeras e chain reaction (PCR). Of two consensus tRNA primers tested, one prim er revealed characteristic amplification products for all of the speci es. A total of 35 tRNA markers were scored across all accessions. Five genus-specific and three species-specific markers were obtained. Geno mic fingerprints were largely conserved within a genus. The phylogram obtained using parsimony has separated most of the accessions into the ir prevailing taxonomic species and genus groups. The phylogram showed close association among the three genera Secale, Triticum and Hordeum as expected. The Triticum-Secale relationship was closer than the Tri ticum-Hordeum or the Secale-Hordeum relationships. The tree also refle cted the close associations among the forage grass species belonging t o Leymus and Elymus. Thus tDNA-PCR helped to identify species and gene ra.