Genetic diversity was estimated in 13 accessions of the otherwise self pollinated Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. (velvetbean) comprising varieties pruriens and utilis collected from tropical humid forest using 15 RAPD primers. Similarity index value of 0.68 based on Nei and Li's similarity coefficient indicated high degree of genetic variability. Analysis of various genetic diversity indices like total heterozygosity, Nei's gene diversity, percentage of polymorphic loci, expected and observed number of alleles and Shannon index strongly suggests that variety pruriens is genetically more diverse than variety utilis. Chemical analysis with respect to 3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (L-DOPA) content showed uniform distribution. Cluster analysis showed grouping of accessions into two major clusters and tendency of accessions of variety pruriens to group according to their geographical locations. Bootstrap analysis confirmed the robustness of the phenogram. The putative hybrid MMP6 with relatively low similarity value index and low L-DOPA content was promising as food or fodder.
Twenty accessions of the sparsely cultivated diploid Musa cultivars Matti (AA) and Rasakadali (AB) were subjected to random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay. A total of 14 random primers were used for the estimation of interand intracultivar variations. Out of 86 bands generated, 64 were polymorphic (74.4 % polymorphism). The cluster analysis grouped the cultivars into two major clusters: cluster I with 10 accessions of Matti and 2 of Rasakadali and cluster II comprising the remaining 8 accessions of Rasakadali. The coefficient of genetic similarity (GS) was from 0.73 to 0.99, suggesting low level of intercultivar variation. The accessions of Rasakadali with mean GS of 0.89 were genetically more diverse than those of Matti (GS = 0.93).Additional key words: banana, genetic similarity coefficient, UPGMA phenogram.
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