comparison of rapd, issr, and damd markers for genetic diversity assessment between accessions of jatropha curcas l. and its related species

molecular characterization of 19 jatropha accessions that included 15 accessions of j.curcas and 4 different species was carried out using 3 different markers systems. highest polymorphism (96.67%) was recorded by rapd followed by damd (91.02%) and issr (90%). polymorphism information content (pic) was higher for damd (0.873) and almost equal for rapd (0.863) and issr (0.862) markers, whereas resolving power (rp) was found to be higher for rapd as compared to the other two marker systems. marker index (mi) values varied greatly with highest (19.07) in rapd. shannon index (i), observed number of alleles (na), effective number of alleles (ne) and nei’s genetic diversity (h) values were found to be significantly higher for issr as compared to rapd and damd markers. thus, all the markers proved to be equally efficient for diversity studies in jatropha. several alleles in all the markers indicated j. gossypiifolia as one of the parents of j. tanjorensis. dendrograms and pca plots generated based on rapd showed three major clusters with j. integerrima and j. podagrica falling in group i, fifteen j. curcas accessions in group ii, and j. gossypiifolia as an outlier in group iii. damd markers also showed similar clustering pattern whereas issr showed last cluster of j. gossypiifolia and j. tanjorensis. these results may provide a future base for conservation and characterization of available jatropha genetic resources.