GENETIC DIVERSITY ANALYSIS OF ACID LIME (CITRUS AURANTIFOLIA SWINGLE) CULTIVARS
Keywords:
Acid lime, Cultivars, Genetic diversity RAPDAbstract
Acid lime (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle) is an important commercial fruit crop, cultivated in our country. High variation of acid lime fruits are observed in existing varieties due to crossing within the other acid lime accessions. Determination of genetic variation is important to the plant breeders for development of high yielding variety. Therefore, an attempt has been made to study the genetic diversity of 6 acid lime varieties, maintained in our orchard. Ten Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers were used to assess the genetic diversity of acid lime. The average genetic similarity level among the 6 varieties was 60.5%, separated four major cluster groups. Total of 76 alleles of which 35 were polymorphic detected by ten primers RAPD markers. The Jaccard coefficient was used to calculate the genetic similarity. UPGMA was used to generate the dendrogram which clearly showed that the six acid lime varieties formed four clusters. Among the different clusters, the cluster size varied from 2 (cluster I and III) to 1 (cluster II, IV). The cluster I consisted of PKM -1 and Vikram. The cluster II consisted of Saisarbathi. The cluster III consisted of Pramalini and Tenali. The cluster IV consisted of Kasipentla. Among the cultivars, Pramalini and Tenali showed nearly 92% similarity followed by PKM-1 and Vikram which showed nearly 80% similarity. Kasipentala showed nearly 58% similarity, and Saisarbathi nearly 46% similarity. RAPD are highly polymorphic and more informative for the assessment of genetic diversity of acid lime varieties.