COMPARISON OF SEVEN MOLECULAR TECHNIQUES FOR PELARGONIUM CULTIVAR IDENTIFICATION

Traditionally, in case of a dispute, cultivar identification in ornamental plants is based on phenotypic analyses, which often requires much time. The objective of the present project is to test the usefulness of DNA fingerprinting techniques for protection of Pelargonium breeders' rights (detection of fraudulent propagation). In order to select the most appropriate technique for Pelargonium cultivar identification, seven molecular methods which are currently used to provide genetic fingerprints in plants were compared: RFLP, RAPD, SCAR, STMS (PCR-amplification of microsatellite motives), oligofingerprinting, InterSSR-PCR and AFLP.

Such a technique would not only detect fraudulently propagated plants, but could also be used for the test of distinction in the general plant protection rights procedure (“DUS test”, Distinction-Uniformity-Stability), and for the identification of Essentially Derived Varieties (EDV).