Molecular characterization of Cissus quadrangularis using RAPD-PCR technique Padmpriya S.*, Vinoth K., Rajamani K. Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Coimbatore–641003, Tamil Nadu, India *Corresponding author e-mail: spadampriyaa@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 20 June, 2022. Abstract Cissus quadrangularis commonly known as veldt grape, is an ancient medicinal plant native to Srilanka and India. Among the fifty ecotypes collected from different geographical locations of Tamil Nadu, five morphologically superior ones were subjected to genotyping through molecular (RAPD) markers. The RAPD analysis was carried out using a set of 12 decamer random primers for DNA amplification through PCR assay. Out of 12 RAPD primers screened, 8 primers produced clear polymorphic bands in all the tested 5 ecotypes (TNCq32, TNCq34, TNCq29, TNCq23 and TNCq9). A total of 128 bands were detected from 8 DNA templates of different ecotypes, among which 63 (50.54%) bands were polymorphic revealing a high degree polymorphism among the ecotypes. The range of polymeric bands in C. quadrangularis ecotypes was 5–12. The average number of bands per primer was 7.88. The highest number of bands i.e., 12 were generated by the primer RPL5 followed by RPL-8 (10 bands) and RPL-10 (10 bands). Primer RPL-9 generated only 5 bands and the average of banding pattern of all the primers was 16.00. In the present study, the PIC values ranged between 0.38–0.46. The mean PIC score for all loci was 0.43. The linkage and divergence nature of the ecotypes computed by using UPGMA cluster analysis to generate a dendrogram of 5 genotypes of C. quadrangularis revealed two major clusters along with two minor sub clusters. Major cluster I had only one ecotype (TNCq32) possessing circular leaves with dark green coloured stem and produced flowers. The ecotypes 34 and 29 were found to have the highest similarity (SI=0.64807) followed by 34 and 23 (SI=0.63245). Top Keywords Veldt grape, Ecotypes, RAPD markers, Polymorphism, UPGMA cluster analysis. Top |