Molecular phylogeny and DNA amplification fingerprinting of Petunia taxa

The relationship of five species of Petunia and ten cultivars of the cultivated petunia, Petunia x hybrida, were investigated using DNA- amplification fingerprinting (DAF). Reproducible banding profiles were obtained from P. parodii and P. axillaris DNA from different seed sources. In contrast, other petunias such as P. inflata, P. violacea and P. integrifolia produced variable fingerprints when different plants were examined. However, representative profiles of the variable Petunia taxa were obtained by bulking the leaf tissue from ten different individual plants. Each often octamer primers revealed polymorphic loci between taxa. Among a total of 201 bands produced, 146 (73%) loci were polymorphic and distinguished all species and cultivars. Phenetic and cluster analysis using DAF markers separated P. axillaris from P. parodii and distinguished between the violet- flowered species, P. inflata, P. violacea, and P. integrifolia, P. parodii grouped together with the monophyletic set of the ten cultivars of P. x hybrida examined, indicating that it had made a major contribution to the development of these cultivars. Cultivars were distributed within the dendograms by flower color. The results demonstrated the utility of DAF in establishing relationships among closely related species and cultivars of Petunia.