Abstract:
The objective of this work was to genetically analyze somaclonal variants and gamma induced mutants of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cv. Diamant using RAPD-PCR technique. In the present work, callus was induced from nodes, internodes and leaf explants in MS medium supplemented with NAA (1.0 mg/l) and BAP (0.5 mg/l) and plants were regenerated from 14-20 weeks old calli. For gamma irradiation, ten-week old well proliferating calli were exposed to doses ranging from 5-50 Gy. All the four selected somaclonal variants and five gamma induced mutants were differentiated by banding patterns obtained from 22 primers that generated 140 polymorphic bands. The presence of polymorphic bands in variants and mutants suggest that genetic variation occurred in all the treatments as compared to control. Similarity and clustered analysis were conducted using Jaccard’s coefficients and the un-weighted pair-group method using arithmetic
averages. The results summarized in a dendrogram, show genetic diversity among the variants and mutants. The study shows that RAPD markers were efficient in discriminating somaclonal variants and induced mutants of potato.
