Abstract

IDENTIFICATION OF CYMBOPOGON SPECIES BY USING RAPD TECHNIQUE

Parul Tripathi*, Dr. Aditi Singh

ABSTRACT

Cymbopogon species shows a wide variation in morphological
attributes & oil composition at inter & intraspecific levels. Knowledge
of germplasm diversity is very important for plant conservation &
improvement, therefore there is an interest in determining the genetic
diversity in Cymbopogon germplasm. Although, morphological traits
may be used to access genetic diversity as they are strongly influenced
by environmental conditions & show little variation at the intraspecific
level. Therefore, molecular markers are used to obtain much
reliable estimates of genetic diversity. Amongst them, Random
Amplified Polymorphic DNAs have been widely employed for the
identification of ancestors, cultivars & discerning the genomic diversity in Cymbopogons.
However, RAPDs have some limitations as molecular markers, the most important is being
poor reproducibility of the profiles across the laboratories. The objective of the present study
is to analyse genetic relationship as well as diversity amongst the three species of
cymbopogon (winterianus, citrates, martinii). The three specieses are collected from
approximately same geographical region of India. DNA after isolation amplified with specific
forward & reverse primers & RAPD was performed. The study showed minor level of
genetic diversity, which may be because they were from approximately same geographical
region.

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