ANALYSIS OF GENETIC SIMILARITY OF Festuca rubra L. AND Festuca nigrescens LAM. SUB-POPULATIONS OF

The investigation of genetic similarity involved Festu-ca rubra L. and Festuca nigrescens Lam. ecotypes. The study plants originated from sub-populations in the south-eastern part of Poland. The analysis of the genetic similarity was performed by the PCR technique with the use of semi-specific primers tar-geting 12–18 bp long plant gene sequences from the exon tar-geting (ET) and intron targeting (IT) group. The investigations were carried out using 21 primers. In total, 735 DNA fragments were obtained, out of which the individual primers amplified from 16 (ET 10/18mer) to 56 (ET 11/18mer) fragments. On average, one primer yielded 32.38 polymorphic products from 11 (IT 28/12mer) to 56 (ET 11/18mer). In total, 680 (91.62%) polymorphic products were obtained. The primers used genera-ted PCR products which exhibited high polymorphism. In the case of the 18-nucleotide primers, the number of amplified po-lymorphic fragments was more than 96%. Based on the results obtained, it was found that Nei’s genetic similarity for the Festuca rubra and Festuca nigrescens sub-populations analysed was high enough to correspond to the sub-species status. The genetic similarity between ecotypes of the species is closely related to the site of occurrence of the genotypes studied. The highest similarity was found between ecotypes growing in the immediate vicinity of each other