Genetic diversity among some canola cultivars as revealed by RAPD, SSR and AFLP analyses

To assess the genetic diversity among four canola cultivars (namely, Serw-3, Serw-4, Misser L-16 and Semu 249), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), simple sequence repeat polymorphism (SSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses were performed. The data indicated that all of the three molecular markers gave different levels of polymorphism. A total of 118, 31 and 338 markers that show 61, 67.7 and 81 % polymorphism percentages were resulted from the RAPD, SSR and AFLP analyses, respectively. Based on the data obtained the three markers can be used to differentiate between the four canola cultivars. The genotype-specific markers were determined, 18 out of the 72 polymorphic RAPD markers generated were found to be genotype-specific (25 %). The highest number of RAPD specific markers was scored for Semu 249 (15 markers), while Serw-4 scored two markers. On the other hand, Serw-3 scored one marker. The cultivar Semu 249 scored the highest number of unique AFLP markers, giving 57 unique markers, followed by Misser L-16 which was characterized by 40 unique AFLP markers, then Serw-3 giving 31 unique markers. While Serw-4 was characterized by the lowest number producing 14 unique positive markers. The dendrogram built on the basis of combined data from RAPD, SSR and AFLP analysis represents the genetic distances among the four canola cultivars. Understanding the genetic variability among the current canola cultivars opens up a possibility for developing a molecular genetic map that will lead to the application of marker-assisted selection tools in genetic improvement of canola.