ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND INTER-RELATIONSHIPS AMONG A FEW WILD MULBERRY (MORUS LAEVIGATA ANDM. SERRATA) COLLECTIONS OF INDIA THROUGH DNA MARKER ANALYSIS

摘要

An attempt was carried out to reliably assess the genetic diversity existing in the wild mulberry populations for appropriate conservation measures. Nine collections each of the two wild mulberry species (Morus laevigata and M. serrata) from differentgeographical locations were assembled. RAPD analysis using ten informative arbitrary sequence decamcr primers generated 143 discrete markers ranging from 300-3400 bp. Among them, 135 were polymorphic (94.4 %) with an average of 14.3 markers per primer.The ISSR screening carried out with four anchored primers generated a total of 60 markers of which 51 were polymorphic (85.0 %). The combined genetic analysis of RAPD and ISSR markers based on Dice similarity coefficient shows the wide genetic variability between the two wild species collections ranging from 0.951 to 0.422. The population of M. laevigata namely, Jowai and Badodhi were the closest with maximum similarity of 0.951 and Jowai (M. laevigata) and Bowali Farm (M. serrata) were the most distantwith the least similarity of 0.422. UPGMA clustering analysis based on combined DNA marker analysis separated these 18 collections into two distinct groups in accordance with their taxonomic status.