Genetic relationships in Dioscorea alata L. revealed by RAPD analysis

A total of twelve lines of Dioscorea alata L. were selected from the field of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute. Genetic variations were detected by RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) technique. Twenty 10bp primers were employed to perform the analysis. Of the 14 primers produced, 180 polymorphic RAPD markers were scored for all the lines studied. Genetic distances between each of the lines were calculated, and cluster analysis was used to generate a dendrogram showing phylogenetic relationships among them. There were considerable variations among the lines of D. alata, even between the lines of same region. The largest genetic distance was 0.494, found between the lines of 70W03 and 70R01. The smallest was 0.317, between 70W33 and 70W35. RAPD technique in the study provided a cost-effective method for line identification and classification of Dioscorea.