Assessment of Genetic Diversity among 16 Promising Cultivars of Ginger Using Cytological and Molecular Markers

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) is an economically important plant, valued all over the world. The existing variation among 16 promising cultivars as observed through differential rhizome yield (181.9 to 477.3 g) was proved to have a genetic basis using different genetic markers such as karyotype, 4C nuclear DNA content and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). The karyotypic analysis revealed a differential distribution of A, B, C, D and E type of chromosomes among different cultivars as represented by different karyotype formulas. A significant variation of 4C DNA content was recorded in ginger at an intraspecific level with values ranging from 17.1 to 24.3 pg. RAPD analysis revealed a differential polymorphism of DNA showing a number of polymorphic bands ranging from 26 to 70 among 16 cultivars. The RAPD primers OPC02, OPA02, OPD20 and OPN06 showing strong resolving power were able to distinguish all 16 cultivars. The extent of genetic diversity among these cultivars was computed through parameters of gene diversity, sum of allele numbers per locus and Shannon's information indices. Cluster analysis, Nei's genetic similarity and genetic distances, distribution of cultivars into special distance classes and principal coordinate analysis and the analysis of molecular variance suggested a conspicuous genetic diversity among different cultivars studied. The genetic variation thus detected among promising cultivars of ginger has significance for ginger improvement programs.

Use of Rice SSR Markers as RAPD Markers for Genetic Diversity Analysis in Zingiberaceae

“…The efficiency of rice SSRs as RAPD markers in the present study was appreciable, compared to genetic diversity studies based on RAPD markers in other species like vegetable water pepper (Yasuda and Yamaguchi 2005), upland cotton (Lu and Myers 2002), yam ( Dansi et al 2000) and wild, weedy and cultivated azuki beans (Mimura et al 2000). Similarly, in genetic diversity analyses conducted in Alpinia (Saritnum et al 2005) and Zingiber (Nayak et al 2005), 8 and 20 RAPD primers generated 73 and 101 polymorphic bands, respectively, with an average number of polymorphic bands amplified by each RAPD marker ranging from 1 to 9. However, in the present study, the number of polymorphic bands generated by 8 rice SSR primer sets was 140 with an average of 17.5 bands per primer.…”

“…However, in the present study, the number of polymorphic bands generated by 8 rice SSR primer sets was 140 with an average of 17.5 bands per primer. The efficiency of the rice SSR markers in terms of amplification of a large number of fragments as well as average number of fragments per primer set was high, compared to RAPD markers (Saritnum et al 2005, Nayak et al 2005. Amplification of several fragments with a large size reflected the low probability of the presence of target repeat motifs among the genotypes studied.…”

“…However, the genetic diversity and relatedness among the species in these groups are not well documented and few studies have been reported so far (Nayak et al 2005, Saritnum et al 2005. One of the major reasons is the lack of appropriate genetic markers and limited interest in underutilized taxa in academic research.…”

Identification and genetic variation among eight varieties of ginger by using random amplified polymorphic DNA markers

“…The high matrix values indicated that there varieties were distantly related to each other. Nayak et al (2005) reported that there was high genetic variation among the 16 varieties of ginger. The high difference in gene diversity among varieties reveals the presence of strong genetic structure between them and thus siginificant differences exist in the genotypic diversity among themselves.…”

Phychemistry, Phytochemical, Pharmacological and Molecular Study of Zingiber Officinale Roscoe: A Review

“…There were significant variations reported in 16 elite cultivars of ginger by using cytological and RAPD marker [118][119]. In Malaysian region, Mohd et al [120] were carried out an experiment in three varieties of ginger by RAPD marker and reported variations among samples.…”