Genetic Variation in Bamboo Species of North East India through RAPD

North East India is rich in bamboo germplasms diversity. Molecular markers are better than morphological and biochemical markers for genome identification and utilization because of their superiority in several aspects. In the present study, identification of genetic relationships in 30 bamboo species was investigated using RAPD technique. The level of polymorphism detected by RAPD was 79.51%. Primer OPC-07, OPD-03, OPD-13, OPD-20, OPM-03, OPM-04, OPM-12 and OPM17 gave species specific differentiation. Genetic diversity of bamboo species were analysed by UPGMA cluster analysis on the basis of banding patterns. Considering the bands obtained using all the primers, similarity was observed to be more than 80% between species. Dendrogram constructed based on RAPD data showed three distinct clusters of bamboo species. RAPD was found useful in studying the genetic diversity among bamboo species and could be used in the future to identify molecular markers specific for particular species.