Genetic diversity among three <i style="">Morinda </i>species using RAPD and ISSR markers

Abstract

A total of 22 accessions of 3 <i style="">Morinda</i> spp. (Family: Rubiaceae), namely, <i style="">M. citrifolia, M. tinctoria</i> and <i style="">M. pubescens</i> were collected from three geographical locations of India, viz., Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. RAPD (52) and ISSR (60) primers were employed as genetic marker to study the genotypic variation within and between <i style="">Morinda </i>spp. In RAPD, only 26 primers amplified and gave reproducible fragments, of which 11 primers were polymorphic. Among 1767 amplified DNA fragments obtained, 953 (54.33%) were polymorphic. The accessions AHD and SHE-1 were the most closely related cultivars with the highest similarity index (0.943) and BBD and MAA-1 were the most distantly related cultivar with lowest similarity index (0.387). In ISSR, of 60 primers tested, 22 gave clear and reproducible fragments. In total, 1892 fragments of different lengths were amplified, of which 1052 bands (56.02%) were polymorphic. According to ISSR results, the two most closely related cultivars were MTC and JGH with the highest similarity index (0.944) and the most distantly related cultivars were BMN with MEM and BGL-2 with lowest similarity index (0.248). Polymorphism and similarity index values for both RAPD and ISSR systems showed that both marker systems are equally effective for diversity analysis in <i style="">Morinda</i> species