'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONG ECOTYPES OF LOLIUM PERENNE U.K. POSSELT, S. BOLARIC University of Hohenheim, State Plant Breeding Institute, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany

Three sets of ecotypes originating from distinct areas of the north, middle and south of Germany have been investigated by RAPDs. 24 individuals of each of the 22 populations were analysed with six primers and a total of 157 polymorphic bands were generated with a range of 50 to 81 per ecotype.  Average genetic distance among pairs of ecotypes ranged from 0.14 to 0.47.  The molecular variance could be partioned into among (29%) and within (71%) populations. The sets from the middle and south were not significantly different from each other while those from the north built a distinct group.  From our data we conclude that divergent genepools of Lolium perenne do exist within Germany and can be identified by means of molecular markers.