Molecular characterization of an endangered Species-Eugenia calcadensis

The RAPD technique was used to access the genetic diversity of Eugenia calcadensis Bedd. an IUCN red listed species collected from Agasthiarmalai Biosphere Reserve in the southern Western Ghats of India. Twenty primers produced 161 reproducible bands with 33% polymorphism. The EC₄ population displayed the highest percentage of polymorphism (33.54) and highest level of genetic variability (0.15). The UPGMAphenetic dendrogram showed distinct separation of five locations into two major groups having 90% similarity. Among the accession studied, the Mancholai (EC₄) accession is considered as the superior genotype because of highest level of genetic variability and percentage of polymorphism.