Differentiation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vaccinium</Emphasis> Cultivars and Wild Clones Using RAPD Markers

The potential use of the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique for characterization and assessment ofgenetic relatedness was investigated in 13 wild cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait) clones collected from Newfoundlandand Labrador, Canada. RAPD markers were also used to distinguish representatives of three different Vaccinium species.Twenty-two decamer arbitrary primers yielded informative, reproducible and polymorphic banding patterns in 13 cranberryclones and produced a total of 134 bands, of which 114 were polymorphic. The UPGMA cluster analysis separated the clonesinto two main groups: Cluster I of seven and Cluster II of six with 0.62 to 0.91 and 0.50 to 0.77 Nei and Li’s similarity range,respectively. In another experiment, a subset of eight primers was used and the RAPD markers discriminated the threeVaccinium species: cranberry, lowbush blueberry (V. angustifolium Ait) and lingonberry (V. vitis-idaea L). The RAPDpolymorphisms will be useful for Vaccinium genotype differentiation and the technology should be valuable for themaintenance of germplasm banks and the efficient choice of parents in the current Vaccinium germplasm improvementprogram.