Comparative analysis of maize lines VIR-27 and CHK-218 using SSR- And RAPD-markers

The ChK-218 line was obtained by means of experimental mutagenesis, that is, treatment of the seeds of the VIR-27 line with streptomycin. Significant differences between these lines in terms of the dimensions and number of heterochromatin regions in different pairs of chromosomes have been previously demonstrated. In the present study a comparative molecular and genetic analysis of the genomes of the VIR-27 and ChK-218 lines is carried out using SSR-and RAPD-polymerase chain reaction. The degree of polymorphism is shown to be 26.9% for the SSR alleles and 21.7% for the RAPD amplicons. These differences seem to indicate that streptomycin treatment of maize seeds produces a noticeable mutagenic effect, moreover, besides the structure of the chromosomes, changes also occur in the DNA sequence.