Abstract

RAPD – PCR ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS SPECIES OF SALACIA COLLECTED FROM WAYANAD TO STUDY ITS GENETIC FIDELITY

Priya G., Gopalakrishnan M. and Sekar T.*

ABSTRACT

Salacia is one of the medicinally valuable genus consisting of more than 200 species, which belongs to the family Celastraceae, formerly called as Hippocreataceae. Salacia is distributed throughout tropical areas which include India, Srilanka, Southern China and other Southern Asian Countries. It is found to compose of several biologically active compounds which are not only used to treat diabetes but also in the treatment for hyperlipidaemia and pancreatic lipase inhibition. They also found to possess anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant activities. Very little reports are found on the study about Salacia at molecular level. Hence, the present study was aimed to access genetic variability between seven species of Salacia such as Salacia beddomei Gamble, Salacia chinensis L, Salacia fruticosa Heyme ex Lawson, Salacia gambleana Whiting and Kaul, Salacia macrosperma Wight, Salacia malabarica Gamble and Salacia oblonga Wall ex Wight & Arn Var. Kakkayamana P.S.Udayan & A.V.Raghu sp. RAPD markers are employed for the identification of interspecific hybrids, marker assisted selection and genetic resource management. Genomic DNA was isolated from seven species of Salacia and used for further RAPD-PCR amplification. Polymorphic bands were found in each species and overall percentage of polymorphism was found to be 68% .Dendrogram and Similarity matrix was generated which shows maximum genetic similarity between seven species of Salacia.

Keywords: Salacia, RAPD markers, Polymorphism, Similarity Matrix, Genetic Similarity.