Abstract

Isabgol (Plantago ovata F., family: Plantaginaceae) is one of the most importantmedicinal plants of South Asia. Two DNA based molecular marker techniques, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR), were used to study the genetic diversity among genotypes of Isabgol. A total of 38 polymorphic primers (22 random and 16 ISSR) were used. Amplification of genomic DNA of 24 genotypes, using RAPD analysis, yielded 208 fragments, of which 98 (47.12%) were polymorphic. The 16 ISSR primers produced 124 bands across 24 genotypes, of which 24 (19.35%) were polymorphic. RAPD markers appeared more informative than ISSR in determining the genetic diversity. The similarity coefficient ranged from 0.77 to 0.97, 0.81 to 1.00 and 0.84 to 0.98 with RAPD, ISSR and combined dendrogram, respectively. This indicates very low level of genetic diversity among genotypes. A poor mantel correlation (r = 0.28) was found between both sets of genetic similarity data, suggesting that both sets of markers revealed unrelated estimates of genetic relationships. Therefore, the RAPD and ISSR markers show two genetic grouping of studied Isabgol genotypes. The genotypes RI-168, RI-167, RI-137, PB-62, RI-153, RI-148 and Gumary were spotted as genetically diverse in both sets of markers and could be efficiently utilized in crop improvement programmes.

Key words: Plantago ovata, molecular marker, RAPD, ISSR, genetic diversity, medicinal plant.

Abbreviation

Abbreviations: PCR, Polymerase chain reaction; RAPD, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA; ISSR, inter-simple sequence repeat; CTAB, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide; TBE, tris–borate–ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; OUTs,operational taxonomic units; SCARs, sequence characterized amplification regions.