Abstract

Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA was amplified from 30 populations of Cuscuta reflexa Roxb. collected from nine different geographical locations of India.  Analysis of nucleotide sequences reflects the polymorphism among the populations and differentiated them regionally. Maximum Likelihood Analysis (MLA) conducted on the ITS datasets, revealed that clade showed 100% bootstrap support (together) and subclade showed grouping according to their geographic locations in all the sampled populations except the samples collected from West Bengal and Assam. Thus, such results showed the distribution of C. reflexa in different geographical regions which might have evolved under reproductive isolation while the genetic exchange could be the reason in case of C. reflexa’s populations distributed in the West Bengal and Assam.

Key words: Cuscuta reflexa, genetic diversity, internal transcribed spacer, nrDNA, maximum likelihood