In the present study, random amplification of polymorphic DNA is used to assess somaclonal variation in Sauropus androgynus L.. Shoot cultures treated with UV-C irradiation were investigated. The shoots of S. androgynus L. were cultured for six weeks on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 1 mg/l 6- benzyladenine (BA) for multiple shoot formation. Multiple shoots were treated with UV-C irradiation for 0, 5, or 10 min (0, 2.03 or 4.06 kJ m-2 ) and wild type was included as control. The shoot cultures were further grown for three weeks. Then, DNA was extracted and used as template in RAPD analysis (n= 3). The results indicated that nine different decamer oligonucleotide primers generated 157 reproducible amplified products. The similarity coefficients calculated with Simqual subprogram of numerical taxonomy system in multivariate software ranged within 0.026-0.975. Cluster analysis divided four samples into two groups comprised of an “in” group and an “out” group. Maximum polymorphic bands were revealed by using UV-C irradiation for 5 min.
