Microsatellite fingerprinting in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and wild relatives.

Southern hybridisation with a single microsatellite probe, (TCT)10, sufficed to discriminate between a representative set of cultivars/accessions of lettuce, Lactuca sativa L., and its wild relatives L. serriola, L. saligna and L. virosa. Variability within cultivars was tested in a relatively modern cultivar (Hector), where no variation was found, and in an older and morphologically more variable cultivar (Madrilene), where heterogeneity was observed in the TCT fingerprint. (TCT)10 fingerprinting should be useful for variety identification and homogeneity testing in lettuce.