Direct comparison of levels of genetic variation in tomato detected by a GACA-containing microsatellite probe and by random amplified polymorphic DNA.

In this study, a direct comparison was made of the ability of four selected random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers and a GACA-containing microsatellite probe to detect genetic variation in Lycopersicon. Of the 89 RAPD primers initially tested, 85 showed differences between a representative of Lycopersicon pennellii and L. esculentum, but only 4 distinguished among three L. esculentum cultivars. These four primers were subsequently tested on representatives of six Lycopersicon species. In pairwise comparisons of species, all or 14 of the 15 combinations could be distinguished by single primers. When the primers were tested on 15 L. esculentum cultivars, 90 of the 105 combinations could be distinguished by the four primers together. Finally, none of 118 tested primers showed reproducible differences among calli or progeny of régénérants from tissue culture, although some of the plants had inherited morphological mutations. The probe pWVA16, which detects GACA-containing microsatellites, could distinguish in TaqI-digested DNA the representatives of Lycopersicon species as well as all the L. esculentum cultivars tested. The probe was unable to detect polymorphisms among calli and the progeny of regenerants from tissue culture. An analysis of the results showed that the four selected RAPD primers were able to detect polymorphic bands among species at a frequency of 80%, and among cultivars at a frequency of 44%. In contrast, the microsatellite probe detected polymorphic bands at a frequency of 100 and 95%, respectively. The GACA-containing probe did not detect any common bands among the representatives of the six species, while band sharing with RAPDs was 48%. These results indicate that the two methods detect two types of DNA that differ in their degree of variability.