PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES Determination of Genetic Diversity in Tall Fescue with AFLP Markers

markers, AFLP markers were found to be highly repro-Little information is available regarding genetic variation in tall ducible with an overall error rate of 2 % (Tohme etfescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb). Such information is important al., 1996; Vos et al., 1995). The PCR-based AFLP mark-in constructing mapping populations and targeting germplasm collec-tion and utilization. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ers are amenable to automation for high-throughput genetic diversity among a number of tall fescue accessions, cultivars, genotyping and, being anonymous, do not require any and selected genotypes. In one experiment, 16 persistent tall fescue sequence information. plants (genotypes) were assayed by a fluorescence-labeled amplified Determination of genetic diversity in tall fescue and fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) detection method using DNA other outcrossing species is complicated by the fact thatsamples from individual plants. In a second experiment, AFLP diver-genetic variation exists among populations (cultivars orsity among 18 tall fescue populations, including sources of ‘KY-31’, accessions), as well as among individuals within popula-cultivars derived from KY-31 and accessions collected from Oklahoma tions. For this reason, genetic diversity studies on out-and Texas, was assessed by an infrared dye-labeling method using DNA samples bulked by each population. On the basis of 461 AFLP crossing species have been traditionally conducted by markers from six primer combinations, the 16 individual plants were separately profiling DNA from a number of individuals clustered in groups that largely supported the known origins of these within each population. Diversity within and among plants. On the basis of genetic divergence, several candidate parents populations is then determined by analyzing the DN