Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Jatropha (Jatropha Curcus L.) by using RAPD Markers

In the present study, ten RAPD primers were used to assess molecular polymorphism in twenty Jatropha curcas genotypes. A total of 47 amplified products were obtained out of which 44 were polymorphic and 3 were monomorphic. Average polymorphism across twenty genotypes was found to be 93.61 %. For the genotypes tested, 6 to 11 bands were obtained, with an average of 7.83 bands per primer. The size of amplified fragments ranged from 200-3000 bp. Analysis of this polymorphism profile, generated using suitable statistical programmes, grouped the twenty genotypes into two major clusters at a similarity coefficient of 0.62. The cluster-I comprised JC-4 and JCgenotypes. Cluster-II comprised 16 genotypes. ClusterII was divided into two sub clusters at the similarity coefficient 0.65. Sub cluster-I involved three varieties JC-8 and JC-17 and JC-19. The second sub-cluster contained all other genotypes. Genetic similarity matrices of the genotypes ranged from 0.88 to 0.93, indicating a moderate genetic variability among the genotypes. Genotypes JC-3 and JC-2 were genetically most similar with genetic similarity value of 0.88 while the genotypes JC-8 and JC-17 were found out to be genetically most Virendra Kumar et al 384 diverse, at a value of 0.44. Similarity value for all other genotypes varied between these two extreme values. The results obtained indicated that RAPD markers are efficient for identification of Jatropha curcas genotypes and for determination of the genetic relationships among them. Fingerprint data obtained in this study can be further utilized in identification and development of improved Jatropha varieties for further use in breeding programmes.