RAPD marker polymorphism among commercial winery yeast strains

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was employed to characteri ze commercial winery yeast strains currently used in Brazilian industries a nd to examine the relationship between them. Sixteen strains were subjected to RAPD analysis using eight primers, selected from the 40 primers of the kits B and X of Operon Techn. From the total of 93 scorable bands, 39 (41.9 %) were polymorphics. Using the accumulated information of several reaction s, all strains under investigation were differentiated. Cluster analysis re vealed three groups. Most of the strains (11) were clustered in one group. The highest distance (28%) was obtained with the strain Redstar (Universal Food Corp.).