Molecular characterization and genetic diversity among Japanese acid citrus (Citrus spp.) based on RAPD markers

Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to evaluate genetic similarity and interrelationship among 31 acid citrus species and cultivars, including sour oranges (six accessions); `Yuzu' (four accessions) and its relatives (21 accessions). Out of the 60 decamer primers screened, 27 were selected which produced 108 markers; 76 of which were polymorphic. Species or cultivar-specific RAPD markers were also found. A dendrogram based on genetic distance implied that sour oranges were very distinct from 'Yuzu' and its relatives. 'Yuzu' accessions were very closely linked to each other, however; for the other specimens genetic polymorphism could easily be detected by RAPDs and the genetic variation between accessions was quite high and revealed their different origins. In this study some RAPDs allowed the distinction of very close cultivars; for instance 'Kabosu' from 'Aka kabosu'.