A STUDY ON ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND RELATIONSHIPS OF MEDICINAL PLANTS USING RAPD MARKERS

Molecular genetic fingerprints of medicinal species were developed using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker to elucidate the genetic diversity among the 18 species. DNA was isolated using the CTAB method . The amplification was accomplished by using 10 primers and the specific PCR working program . Three decamer.primers generated 250 RAPD fragments, of which 232 fragments were polymorphic with 96.84% of polymorphism. Some of the RAPD markers were useful for species discrimination and identification. Most of the RAPD markers studied showed different level of genetic polymorphism. Amplified fragment sizes ranged from 300 to 5000 bp. Pairwise Nei and Li’s similarity coefficient value ranged from 0.00.0.72 for 18 species of medicinal plants. A dendrogram was constructed based on the Unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages. Cluster analysis of data using the UPGMA algorithm placed the 18 species of medicinal plants into four groups that are somewhat congruent with classification based on morphological characters proposed by earlier works. This analysis grouped all species into different clusters and clearly differentiated the medicinal plants into separate groups. This method of analysis can be helpful in selecting diverse parents and give broadness to the germplasm base of medicinal plants breeding programs in the future.