Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Identification of Species Specific Marker for Wheat Cultivars (Triticum aestivum and T.durum L.) Grown in India using RAPD Marker

Wheat (Triticum aestivum and T. durum L.) is one of the most important cereal crop worldwide and is used to produce various end use products like chapati, bread, biscuits, pasta etc. Due to its food and industrial importance there is need for the improvement of wheat crop to market suitable for different traits. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker can be effectively used for identification and differentiation of the cultivars. PCR amplification of genomic DNA of 12 wheat cultivars using 17 RAPD primers generated 1656 scorable bands with an average of 97.41 bands per primer in which OPF-15 generated highest number of scorable bands. Total 213 loci were observed, out of that 143 were found polymorphic. Primer OPA-18 showed highest (14) polymorphic loci. Polymorphism percentage in all primers ranged from 33.33% (OPE-01) to 100% (OPE-10). Dendrogram produced by pooled RAPD data showed cultivars of T. aestivum and T. durum into two separate clusters. RAPD amplification produced 31 aestivum and durum species specific bands, these bands can be further explored to develop more specific markers like SCARs for identification of wheat species.