Abstract

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers associated with drought tolerance was used in this study to characterize drought tolerance in six wheat genotypes with developed marker assisted drought tolerance. Four of them were tolerant and two were drought sensitive genotypes. The results indicate that tolerant genotypes harbored seven positive RAPD markers, while sensitive genotypes had only one negative RAPD markers. In tolerant genotypes, seven positive PCR-RAPD markers with molecular sizes of 1050, 390, 200, 230, 850, 430 and 800 bp was exhibited by A-12, B-05, C-12, E-10 and B-02 primers. This study indicates that the seven positive markers can be used as indicators to discard drought tolerance in wheat marker -assisted breeding programmes.

Key words: Drought tolerance, PCR analysis, RAPD primer, wheat genotypes.