Abstract:
Eleven decamer primers of arbitrary nucleotide sequence were used to amplify genomic DNA through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR-RAPD) in order to identify and discriminate between 14 grape cultivars (types or synonyms) belonging to the muscat family. Over 115 reproducible polymorphic fragments were generated by this method. On the basis of these fragments the degree of genetic similarity was calculated and the dendrogram of the 14 cultivars was established. The results indicate that there is genetic variation among the cultivars of the muscat family with values of the genetic similarity ranging from 0.666 to 1.00. On the basis of the observed bands it was possible to identify and discriminate between the cultivars studied except for Moschato aspro and Moscudi which were found to be identical.
