Characterization of multiclonal aspen cultivars using isozyme electrophoresis

The characterization and control of multiclonal aspen cultivars by scoring morphological and phenological traits becomes very difficult when many (e.g. 20 or more) clones constitute a cultivar. Therefore, electrophoretically detectable isozyme patterns were tested for their ability to differential individual clones within multiclonal cultivars. Using sets of combined isozyme patterns of five enzyme systems, it was possible to distinguish 19 out of 20 clones constituting a multiclonal aspen cultivar. Thus, electrophoretic methods may be a valuable supplement to more traditional methods in many cases where cultivar characterization and identification are unreliable