Genetic diversity assessment and population genetic studies in Indian Rough Lemon (Citrus jambhiri Lush) using RAPD and ISSR markers

An investigation was undertaken to ascertain the extent of genetic diversity and population differentiation among Citrus jambhiri accessions. Thirty eight accessions of C. jambhiri collected from four different geographical locations (North-east India, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka) were evaluated and characterized using 23 RAPD and 17 ISSR primers. Both RAPD and ISSR markers revealed 79.34% and 80.72% polymorphism, respectively among the accessions. Pair wise comparison of DNA profiles of thirty eight accessions based on RAPD, ISSR and pooled data gave an average similarity value of 0.76, 0.78 and 0.77, respectively. The highest Nei's genetic distance value based on RAPD and ISSR (0.0970, 0.1056) revealed that populations from Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka were most distinct genetically. The genetic differentiation (G_st) and Gene flow (N_m) value of RAPD (0.2393, 1.5894) and ISSR (0.2439, 1.5496) markers indicated less genetic differentiation among the collected populations of C. jambhiri.