Identification of persimmon (Diospyros kaki) cultivars and phenetic relationships between Diospyros species by more effective RAPD analysis

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to identify cultivars of persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) and to estimate the phenetic relationships between Diospyros species. Long random primers (15 and 20 bases) were used to increase the effectiveness of recognizing polymorphism. Twenty-five of 34 (74%) long random primers amplified polymorphic bands of 25 persimmon cultivars, indicating that the effectiveness improved compared with RAPD analysis using 10-base primers. The 25 primers amplified a total of 444 polymorphic bands, which distinguished all 25 cultivars. RAPD markers (133) clarified the phenetic relationship between the six species and subspecies of Diospyros: D. lotus, D. lotus subsp. glabbra and D. taitoensis formed one group (lotus group), and persimmon was related in order of closeness to the lotus group, D. oleifera, and D. rhombifolia.