MOLECULAR MARKER STUDIES OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANTS FOR ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND RELATIONSHIPS

Genetic relationships between eighteen medicinal were assayed with Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers, which distinguish individuals, as well as reflecting the inherent variation and interrelationships among the medicinal plants. 13 decamer RAPD primers were used in the present study. Over 77.23 reproducible bands were generated by RAPD primers, out of which, 77.23 polymorphic bands were identified, conferring 97.6% polymorphism. All the primers produced typical banding in each of the medicinal plants, suggesting the applicability of this test in medicinal plant identification. Most of the individuals of the test exhibited to have unique molecular genotype. Population genetics structure analysis of these species further revealed high genetic differentiation coefficients (Gst), the heterozygosity among populations (Ht) showed with the low gene flow (Nm) when 1stcluster was paired with other medicinal plants On the basis of these parameters and the results of cluster analysis. A dendrogram was constructed using Euclidean distance methods. Based on the number of bands the of the medicinal plants were grouped to form1-4 clusters. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]