DNA-Fingerprint Database Management using Microsoft Access: A Simple Strategy to Corroborate Fingerprints of Clones

With the ratification of the UPOV convention, 1991, by several countries, the importance of Intellectual Property Rights of Plant Breeders has been recognized worldwide. DNA fingerprinting has gained wide acceptance as a technique for identification and patenting clones developed by breeders and also for checking the genetic fidelity of vegetatively propagated material. Cluster analysis has been commonly used to verify if the fingerprint of the clone in question matches with the fingerprints of the clones developed by the plant breeder. While cluster analysis requires softwares like NTSYS and WINBOOT, a simple strategy of using Microsoft Access, a package in the Microsoft Office 2000, is described in this paper. Here we describe a protocol for developing and querying a structured Microsoft Access database of DNA fingerprints of 22 ITC Bhadrachalam clones for direct matching of fingerprint profiles. This method could be applied for any molecular marker.