Molecular Characterization of Turkish Cactus Pear (Opuntia spp.) by RAPD Markers

Opuntia ficus-indica Mill. commonly known as cactus pear is the most agronomicallyimportant species in Cactaceae. Turkey has important genetic resources of Opuntia spp.which should be characterized for further breeding strategies. In this study, molecularcharacterization of plant materials collected from different regions of Turkey in whichOpuntia species grown naturally, was performed by using Random Amplified PolymorphicDNA (RAPD) markers. DNA was successfully amplified by 50 RAPD primers. Among 250bands generated by the RAPD primers, 180 were polymorphic. The number of bandsdetected by a single primer set ranged from one to 12 (average of five bands/primer). Thepercentage of polymorphism was 72% based on RAPD data. All data were scored asdiscrete characters and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA)dendrogram and principle coordinate analysis (PCoA) were performed. Based on theresults, Opuntia genotypes showed high genetic diversity and we showed that RAPDmarkers are powerful tool to discriminate Turkish Opuntia genotypes. The high geneticdiversity existing in the Turkish germplasm suggests that it would be beneficial to utilizethis pool in Opuntia breeding programs and germplasm management activities.