RAMP based fingerprinting and assessment of relationships among Australian narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) cultivars

Narrow-leafed lupin is a major winter grain legume crop in the Australian farming system and a number of commercial cultivars are currently available to growers. A significant level of polymorphism was detected in narrow-leafed lupin cultivars by the randomly amplified microsatellite polymorphism ( RAMP) approach, suggesting that cultivars harbour considerable DNA variation. Seventy-seven cultivar-specific markers were found among the 23 lupin cultivars examined and a dichotomous fingerprinting key was developed for the molecular identification of lupin cultivars. Cluster analysis of pairwise distance matrix computed from RAMP profiles grouped the 23 cultivars into 4 - 5 clusters, which generally agreed with their pedigree relationships.