RAPD and minisatellite markers for genetic diversity and relationship in guava varieties

PCR based Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Directed Amplification of Minisatellite DNA (DAMD) markers were used to study the genetic diversity and relatedness among 22 guava accessions comprising commercial cultivars, breeding lines ‘and unimproved cultivars. DNA isolated by CTAB method was used for amplification of 96 markers by using 7 RAPD primers and 56 workers generated by 40 DAMD primers. Genetic distance matrix based on Jaccard's coefficient revealed maximum distance between Purple Guava and Allahabad Safeda (43%), whereas minimum distance was as low as 5.4% between two breeding lines HPSI-20 and HPSI-26. Interestingly half-sib progenies CISH-G-1 to CISH-G-6 had slightly more distance ranging from 10.8–24.0%. The clustering revealed that most of the cultivars/accessions originated from Indo-Gangetic plains are grouped together. DAMD was found to suitably cluster the cultivars from exotic origin or having exotic parentage.