Genetic diversity of Austrian pine (Pinus Nigra Arnold) populations in Serbia revealed by RAPD

Abstract

The ability of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) to distinguish among populations of Austrian pine from Serbia was evaluated. Ten arbitrary 10mer primers employed in the analysis produced 113 fragments of which 100 were polymorphic (88.5%). All populations had specific RAPD phenotypes. Certain rare and genotype specific bands were identified which could be effectively used to distinguish the populations. Polymorphism in RAPD markers among P. nigra population was high and sufficient to distinguish each of the populations. The results obtained suggest that RAPD markers are valuable for the genetic diversity estimation in Pinus nigra and for the study of the divergence among populations.