Genetic variation among highly endangered Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell from Southern India as detected using RAPD analysis

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprinting approach was applied to assess genetic diversity in different accessions of rejuvenating and intellect-promoting ancient ayurvedic medicinal herb Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell collected from four Southern Indian states, along with in vitro micropropagated samples maintained in the laboratory for 5 years. With the 10 analyzed primers, 110 distinct bands, in the size range of 250–870 bp were observed, and among which 14 (12.72%) were polymorphic. Among the random primers used, only OPD 02 generated highest percentage of polymorphism with 30.77. Whereas OPD 08 generated a maximum of 18 amplified bands, but with only 1% polymorphism. Cluster analysis done on the basis of similarity co-efficient generated from RAPD profiles indicated all the accessions were divided into two sub-groups based on genetic distances under one major cluster. Major cluster is only the lone loose group of the Bm.2 collected from Kerala (KER) and in vitro micropropagated plant (IVMP) maintained in the lab. The other sub-group consisted of Bm.1 and Bm.3 collected from Tamil Nadu (TN) and Andhra Pradesh (AP) respectively, which are genetically similar and showed similarity with accessions from Karnataka Bm.4 (KK). These two sub-groups were joined together at 0.66 genetic distance level. Overall, the levels of genetic similarity within the accessions varied from 0.24 to 0.80, the matrix ranged from 0.36 to 0.80, with a mean value of 0.68 indicating genetic similarity at low level.