Characterization of artichoke genotypes using RAPD markers

A wide morphological variation is present in the disparate varieties or ecotypes of cultivated artichoke, for which the propagation is mainly made vegetatively. In order to evaluate the potential of several molecular markers in distinguishing among artichoke varieties and wild relations and also for possibly employing the underutilised germplasm, a RAPD analysis was started on 32 cultivated accessions belonging to the living collection of the Germplasm Institute, Bari, Italy, and two wild samples. Arbitrary decamer primers were used to amplify genomic DNA and 18 of them produced 69 interpretable polymorphic fragments. Jaccard similarity index, calculated on the basis of the presence or absence of bands, was comprised between 0.693 and 1. The combination of polymorphic fragments allowed all the material analysed to be distinguished, except for two types which had an identical banding pattern. Further studies still need to be conducted on the genetic variation present in each variety. Major differences were observed between cultivated and wild samples.