Identification of plant food raw material by RAPD-PCR: legumes

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles were used to differentiate between several food and feed legume species. Template DNA was extracted from 63 seed meal samples representing 27 legume species (common, scarlet runner, lima, moth, and adzuki beans; broadbeans; soybeans; swordbeans; jackbeans; Florida velvetbeans; common, pigeon, and broad-leaved peas; chickpeas; grasspeas; green, black, and Bengal grams; horsegram; lentils; alfalfa; lupins; common sainfoin; and birdsfoot and sweet trefoil) with sodium dodecyl sulfate-containing buffer and purified by chloroform/isoamyl alcohol treatment and precipitation with 2-propanol. Amplification was performed with commercial RAPD-PCR beads and six 10-mer primers. Three primers (1, 5, and 6) generated RAPD profiles with all 63 templates. Two of these primers produced identical profiles only for two species of the same genus. Identification of all 27 species in homogeneous food or feed samples such as meals was demonstrated by applying either primer 5 or primer 6 and primer 3 to differentiate between swordbeans and jackbeans.