Full Length Research Paper

Analysis of genetic diversity in Eucalyptus grandis (Hill ex Maiden) seed sources using inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) molecular markers

D. O. Okun¹, E. U. Kenya¹*, P.O. Oballa², D. W. Odee³ and G. M. Muluvi¹

¹Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University, P. O. Box 43844-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.

²Genetics and Tree Research Laboratory, Kenya Forestry Research Institute, P. O. Box 20412, Nairobi, Kenya.

³Biotechnology Laboratory, Kenya Forestry Research Institute, P. O. Box 20412, Nairobi, Kenya.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: kenya.eucharia@ku.ac.ku. Tel: +254 020 810901. Fax: +254 020 811575.

Accepted 20 February, 2008

Eucalyptus grandis is an economically important tree species that is native to the Australian continent and its northern neighbours, where it is grown primarily for its hard wood timber and pulp for paper industries. It is widely grown in tropical countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Angola, Ghana, and Zimbabwe. Five ISSR primers generated 41 scorable polymorphic bands which were used to analyse genetic diversity between and within the seed sources and for construction of neighbour-joining phenogram. Mean Genetic Diversity per each primer loci based on Nei (1987) statistics indicated significant genetic variation between seed sources with 26.4%, (Gst = 0.264) of the total variation attributed to differences between seed sources.  The variation between populations could be due to ecological, geographical association and gene flow rates and hence they should be conserved to retain the full breadth of genetic variation of the species. Thus, ISSR-PCR technology is a reliable, rapid (high throughput) and cost effective marker system that can be used to study genetic variation and genetic relationships among E. grandis seed sources.

Key words: Eucalyptus grandis, inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR), genetic variation, seed sources.