Application of the restriction landmark genomic scanning (RLGS) method to rice cultivars as a new fingerprinting technique.

The restriction landmark genomic scanning (RLGS) method was applied to rice, using two Japanese cultivars, 'Nipponbare' and 'Koshihikari', and a Chinese landrace, 'Liu'Zhou'Bao'Ya'Zao'. More than 3000 landmarks were detected as spots on the individual autoradiograms of each cultivar. 'Nipponbare' and 'Liu'Zhou' Bao'Ya'Zao' showed apparently different RLGS profiles, from which the genetic similarity (GS) between them was estimated as 0.344. Although the two Japanese cultivars, 'Nipponbare' and 'Koshihikari' showed quite similar RLGS profiles, they were easily distinguished on the basis of the presence or absence of specific spots; the GS value between them was calculated as 0.980. The RLGS method is shown to be a powerful fingerprinting technique, especially for the classification and identification of cultivars in rice and probably in other crops as well.