Intraspecific variations of the Yam (Dioscorea alata L.) based on external morphology and DNA marker analysis

Intraspecific genetic relationship of 19 variation types of the Yam (Dioscorea alata) classified by their external morphological characteristics such as leaf and tuber shape were assessed by DNA using random and specific primer. Twenty two out of 113 primers (100 random[10-mer) primers, two 15 mer [M13 core sequence, and (GGAT)4 sequence]) had been used in PCR-amplification. Only 12 primers, however, were success in DNA amplification in all of the analyzed plants, resulting in 93 randomly and specifically amplified DNA fragments. The analyzed taxa showed very high polymorphisms(69 bands, 71.0%), allowing individual taxon to be identified based on DNA fingerprinting. Monomorphic bands among total amplified DNA bands of each primer was low under the 50%. Similarity indices between accessions were computed from PCR(polymerase chain reaction) data, and genetic relationships among intraspecific variations were closely related at the levels ranging from 0.66 to 0.90. These DNA data were not matched well with those of morphological characters since they were divided into two major groups at the similarity coefficient value of 0.70. Therefore, Grouping of species into variation types by mainly morphological charactistics was suggested unreasonable.