CONSERVATION OF GENETIC RESOURCE THROUGH RAPD IN Decalepis hamiltonii, AN ENDANGERED MEDICINAL PLANT

Decalepis hamiltonii is an important endangered medicinal plant of Southern and Western India. The main objective of the present study is to conserve the genetic resource present within this endangered species through molecular technique. RAPD markers were used to evaluate the genetic variability among the six accessions of Decalepis hamiltonii by generating cluster analysis and calculating the genetic distances. Ten primers were designed and used which resulted in generating 90 amplicons (bands) out of which 60 amplicons were found polymorphic in nature. PIC value range between 0.09 to 36.00. Based on Jaccards similarity coefficient, diversity range between 54 percent to 81 percent with 66.66% polymorphism.