Assessment of somaclonal variation among sugarcane varieties for salt tolerance through RAPD markers

Somaclonal variation has emerged as an important parasexual tool for crop improvement. but the application of this tool in sugarcane improvement is very rare. therefore, this investigation was conducted for molecular characterization and detection of somaclonal variation of two sugarcane varieties (isd 18 and isd 20) and their somaclones [tc1-10(20) (salt), tc7-10(20)2l (salt), tc30-10(20)1l (salt), tc11-10(18)2l (salt), tc5-10(18)2l (salt) and tc2-10(18)2l (salt)] using four rapd primers (opa-01, opa-02, opa-04 & opb-05). dna isolation is a prerequisite for dna fingerprinting as well as variety identification. the amount of isolated dna was enough for polymerase chain reaction (pcr) amplification and marker studies, such as rapd. rapd analysis resolved 150 scorable bands from four primers. among the 150 rapd bands, 69 bands were monomorphic and 81 bands were polymorphic. the sizes of the amplified bands in two sugarcane varieties and their somaclones showed rapd markers ranged from 100 to 1500bp. the primer opa-02 amplified the highest number of bands (56) and primer opa-01 and opb-05 amplified the lowest number of bands (23). genetic variation and relatedness assessed by using rapd markers could be potential sources of germplasm for use in variety improvement.