DNA fingerprinting was successfully applied to distinguish two popular mulberry (Morus spp.) cultivars, viz., Mysore Local and V-1. RAPD analysis of 12 collections of each of these two cultivars derived from clones of different sources using 12 oligonucleotide random primers generated 73 applicons of which 40 were monomorphic and the rest 33 were polymorphic (45%). All the primers produced typical banding profiles for each of the cultivar suggesting the usefulness of the technique in DNA fingerprinting and cultivar identification. The genetic distance between these two cultivars based on the RAPD data set was estimated as 0.292, which is low in comparison to the morpho-agronomical difference, suggesting a narrow genetic base of the crop.
Mulberry, DNA fingerprinting, RAPD marker, cultivar identification
