The use of RAPD markers for the detection of gene introgression in potato.

Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNAs were employed to demonstrate that potato dihaploids generated after interspecific pollination of a tetraploid Solanum tuberosum cultivar (Pentland Crown) by Solanum phureja dihaploid inducer clones could not be of parthenogenetic origin. Of six different 10-mer oligonucleotides, four generated products from total potato dihaploid genomic DNAs which were not derived from the S. tuberosum parent. Gel electrophoresis and Southern analysis indicated that these amplified bands originated from S. phureja. The results are discussed in the context of recent cytological and molecular evidence which demonstrates that potato dihaploids are aneusomatic (Clulow et al. 1991) and emphasises this approach as a general methodology for the detection of alien gene introgression in both natural and cultivated plant populations.