1Department of Tree Improvement and Genetic Resources, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, India.
2National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India.
*Corresponding author: E-mail: kpmbbsr@rediffmail.com
Present address: Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Research Centre, Agra, 282 006, India.
Genetic variation was studied in the yews of western Himalayas and its associates with the help of RAPD and AFLP markers. Polymorphic bands generated by RAPD and AFLP markers were 75% and 43%, respectively. Average genetic similarity values among the collections from west Himalayas expressed by Jaccard's coefficient were 0.82 and 0.61 for RAPD and AFLP, respectively. Marker index (MI) and effective multiplex ratio (E) for AFLP were much more than RAPD thereby suggesting greater efficiency of AFLP in detecting genetic variation among the collections. Clustering pattern and the genetic distances among the west and east Himalayan yew revealed the possibility of occurrence of species level differentiation of the Himalayan yew.
Himalayan yew, Taxus wallichiana, medicinal tree, RAPD, AFLP, genetic diversity
