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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #163080
Title: HOW MANY GARLICS ARE THERE?

Author
item Volk, Gayle
item Henk, Adam
item Richards, Christopher

Submitted to: Garlic Press
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2004
Publication Date: 9/1/2004
Citation: Volk, G.M., A.D. Henk and C.M. Richards. 2004. How many garlics are there? The Garlic Press 44:5-8.

Interpretive Summary: Garlic has been propagated clonally for thousands of years. The names of accessions have been changed as clones have been passed among producers and gardeners. We performed a genetic analysis of 211 garlic accessions that were available through USDA's National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) and from commercial growers. We were able to identify groups of very similar accessions as well as unique accessions. Growers that wish to maximize diversity of accessions in their collections can select unique clones from our genetic distance network. Growers can also identify accessions that may perform as well as similar accessions under a given set of environmental conditions.

Technical Abstract: Garlic has been propagated clonally for thousands of years. The names of accessions have been changed as clones have been passed among producers and gardeners. We performed a genetic analysis of 211 garlic accessions that were available through USDA's National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) and from commercial growers. Using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism techniques, we determined that 64% of the samples we included from the NPGS collection and 41% of the commercial accessions were duplicates.