Genetic diversity in in vitro-conserved germplasm of Curcuma L. as revealed by RAPD markers

A set of 30 accessions of five Curcuma species-C. latifolia, C. malabarica, C. manga and C. raktakanta and 13 morphotypes (identified on the basis of morphological markers) of C. longa conserved in the In Vitro Genebank at National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, were subjected to RAPD analysis. Of the 200 RAPD primers screened, 21 polymorphic primers were selected for further study. Mean genetic similarities based on Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranged from 0.18 to 0.86 in accessions of cultivated species, i.e., C. longa and from 0.25 to 0.86 in wild species. The dendrogram derived from the RAPD data corroborated the morphological classification of the morphotypes. The efficiency of individual RAPD primers was also compared; primers OPC-20, OPO-06, OPC-01 and OPL-03 were adjudged highly informative in discriminating the germplasm of Curcuma.