Determination of oxalate in foodstuffs with arylamine glass-bound oxalate oxidase and peroxidase

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 81, NO. 3, 10 AUGUST 2001 248 by repeating the experiment at least once. A total of 34 decamer primers (series OPA, OPB etc.) from Operon Tech, CA, USA were screened using three representative genomic DNA samples of black pepper. Of these, 24 primers that yielded consistent and clear band patterns were selected for the final analysis of the 22 accessions used in the present study. The 24 selected 10-mer primers generated 372 amplification products; the total number of markers per primer ranged from 4 (OPV05) to 21 (OPF09). The range of polymorphic markers per primer was 3 (OPV05) to 21 (OPF09), with a mean of 15.3 polymorphic bands per primer. Cultivar-specific bands were obtained for all the released varieties except Panniyur-3 (Table 1). Panniyur-1 and Panniyur-2 generated specific bands with OPA 08 (Figure 1 a and b). OPA10 was efficient in differentiating three varieties, viz. Panniyur-4, Panniyur-5 and Panchami. Among the land races, cultivar-specific bands were observed for Cheriakaniakadan, Malligeswara and Karimunda. Panniyur-1 is the most popular pepper variety grown in India, while land races Cheriakaniakadan and Karimunda are extensively used for pepper improvement work. The utility of the specific RAPD markers can be increased by sequencing their termini and designing longer primers (SCARS) for specific amplification.