Assessment of genetic diversity of Genus Cyperus L., a medicinal weeds Plant, using RAPD markers

The genus Cyperus is most common weed present in family Cyperaceae (Cyperae). It has a wide range of medicinal and pharmacological applications and has now been identified as a source of several pharmacologically important active substances. We collected different species of the genus Cyperus from different locations in India to assess genetic variability and relatedness. Screened all species, after isolation of Genomic DNA by cTAB methods and using 10 random primers and after accession score found 100 bands of which 35 were polymorphic. Degree of polymorphism shown by RAPD markers was 35.79% with average Rp value and PIC value 2.74 and 0.23 respectively. The highest similarity was measured to be approximately 0.97% and the lowest 0.46%. Various variation parameters viz. Number of alleles (Na) 1.4783; Effective numbers of alleles (NE) were estimated at 1.3529, NE (1973) gene diversity (H) 0.1983 and Shannon’s information index (I) 0.2881. The phylogenetic relationship revealed that all species show a high degree of similarity and on that basis it has been divided into two major clusters. Therefore, this study concluded that RAPD markers can be used in systematic studies of wild plants and may provide suitable keys for further studies.