Varietal Identification of Amaranthus Cultivars through RAPD Markers

The present study reports the varietal identification of 18 amaranth genotypes through 10 RAPD markers. A total of 33 bands were obtained with a range of 2 to 5 bands per primers. The size range of PCR amplified DNA fragments for all RAPD primers was 207 to 2222 bp. The mean value for effective number of polymorphism using all RAPD loci was 1.30 out of a total 1.55 mean observed number of polymorphic bands. The overall gene frequency ranged from 0.0556 to 1. From the RAPD data, an UPGMA dendrogram illustrating the relationship among the 18 amaranth genotypes has been computed. Results showed that genotypes obtained from NBPGR, Gujarat Agricultral University and Mandore were grouped into 2 clusters and showed significant differences and thus can be used as RAPD markers for varietal identification and genetic diversity among the amaranth cultivars.