Genetic variability in <i>Porphyra</i> C. Ag. along the coast of Maharashtra

Abstract

The coast of Maharashtra (India), between Mumbai in North and Redi in South covering 720 km stretch, was visited frequently during the monsoon period for the collection of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Porphyra</i>. Morphological observations on the collected material revealed existence of morphometric diversity of greater magnitude. These populations were, therefore, subjected to molecular analysis using RAPD markers to understand the extent of genetic variability. For the study, 17 morphotypes gathered from 12 locations were used. RAPD analysis was done using 60 primers, of which 24 showed reproducible results. The primers amplified a total of 480 fragments, of which 412 were polymorphic, indicating high frequency of polymorphism.