Abstract

IDENTIFICATION OF CYMBOPOGON SPECIES BY USING RAPD TECHNIQUE

Parul Tripathi*, Dr. Aditi Singh

Abstract

Cymbopogon species shows a wide variation in morphologicalattributes & oil composition at inter & intraspecific levels. Knowledgeof germplasm diversity is very important for plant conservation &improvement, therefore there is an interest in determining the geneticdiversity in Cymbopogon germplasm. Although, morphological traitsmay be used to access genetic diversity as they are strongly influencedby environmental conditions & show little variation at the intraspecificlevel. Therefore, molecular markers are used to obtain muchreliable estimates of genetic diversity. Amongst them, RandomAmplified Polymorphic DNAs have been widely employed for theidentification of ancestors, cultivars & discerning the genomic diversity in Cymbopogons.However, RAPDs have some limitations as molecular markers, the most important is beingpoor reproducibility of the profiles across the laboratories. The objective of the present studyis to analyse genetic relationship as well as diversity amongst the three species ofcymbopogon (winterianus, citrates, martinii). The three specieses are collected fromapproximately same geographical region of India. DNA after isolation amplified with specificforward & reverse primers & RAPD was performed. The study showed minor level ofgenetic diversity, which may be because they were from approximately same geographicalregion.

Keywords: Cymbopogon, genetic diversity, RAPD, DNA amplification.