GENETIC FINGERPRINTING IN CAULIFLOWER BY THE RAPD METHOD AND DETERMINATION OF THE LEVEL OF INBREEDING IN A SET OF F1-HYBRID SEEDS

F1 hybrid varieties of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var botrytis), which produce homogeneous crops, are popular with growers. However, the production of these hybrid seeds is difficult and they may be contaminated by inbreds ie seeds arising from self-fertilization of the maternal line. The level of inbred occurrence is therefore determined before marketing the hybrid to avoid problems with the crop. At the moment this is carried out by a phenotypical test. In order to save time and ensure non-ambiguous results, detection of the level of inbreds is proposed via a new molecular biology technique, the RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) method, which is based on PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplifications each carried out with a single primer, the short sequence of which has been randomly written. The goal is to obtain a marker of the paternal line which can only be detected in hybrids. To adapt this method to our plant material, we tested and modified various PCR parameters. We were thus able to determine that the annealing temperature and the primer concentration act upon amplifications. The RAPD method therefore proved to be a reliable and fast tool for assessing the purity of cauliflower F1 hybrid seed.