Stability of fingerprints of Solanum tuberosum plants derived from conventional tubers and vitrotubers

The restriction and amplification patterns of potato genomic DNA of eight different cultivars and breeding clones has been studied. The analysis was carried out by polyacrylamide high resolution gels, and subsequent blotting and hybridization to potato DNA probes, and by agarose gel electrophoresis of the amplification products obtained with a variety of random primers. Fingerprinting of the genotypes was possible using two enzyme-probe combinations (Rsal-GP35 and Rsal-CP6) and three random primers (OPA4, OPA19 and OPG12). Based on the same techniques, a number of plants from the cvs. Monalisa and Spunta originated from the sprouting of in vitro-induced tubers (vitrotubers) were analysed to test the reproducibility of RFLP and PCR patterns. No variations were found with RFLP analysis. Some different RAPD patterns were seen, showing putatively vitrotuber-specific variations.