Morphological and molecular characterization of pomegramate (Punica granatum L.) Cultivars (Maharashtra)

Abstract

The morphological and RAPD markers were successfully applied to distinguish eleven commercially grown pomegranate cultivars of Maharashtra state. The unique morphological marker (yellow colour of style) in cv. Ganesh was first time reported and helpful to distinguish cv. G-137 (Clonal selection from Ganesh). While for molecular characterization, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to investigate the genetic diversity among 11 cultivars of pomegranate cultivated in Maharashtra state. Unweighed pair-group method average clustering divided the 11 cultivars into two main groups. In RAPD analysis, six out of 30 employed random primers showed good amplification and polymorphism on pomegranate samples with a total of 49 amplicons of which 12 were monomorphic (24.49 %) and 37 were polymorphic (75.51%). Similarity co-efficient ranged from 0.278 to 0.880 for 11 pomegranate cultivars under study indicating the genetic diversity among them. Maximum similarity coefficient (0.880) was observed between cv. Bhagawa and cv. Phule Arakta while minimum (0.278) was observed in between cv. Mridula and cv. Bhagawa. In spite of the relatively low number of primers and cultivars, RAPD constitutes an appropriate procedure to assess the genetic diversity and to survey the phylogenetic relationships in this crop.