Estimation of molecular genetic diversity in some indian sugarcane cultivars as revealed by fluorescent rapd markers

The purpose of this study was to estimate the genetic diversity in some cultivars of sugarcane at the DNA level with an efficient, better sensitivity and highly informative PCR based fluorescent random amplified polymorphic DNA (F-RAPD) and capillary electrophoresis techniques. Degenerate RAPD primers were used for yielding best reproducible banding patterns that were generated for 803 discernible and reproducible bands which included 645 polymorphic, 12 mono-morphic and 146 unique bands. The range of coefficient of similarity or genetic distance among sugarcane varieties was 0.25912-0.64111. Based on the genetic distance calculated from 381 alleles generated from 19 sugarcane cultivars, a dendrogram dividing the cultivars into six clusters was made using the UPGMA (unweighted pair group with arithmetic mean) method. This paper reports the results of a study on the genetic diversity of cultivated 19 sugarcane cultivars as revealed by fluorescent RAPD information which would help to conserve the cultivar-specific genetic diversity for the breeding program. The present study also revealed that molecular markers can be successfully utilized for inferring genetic diversity and genetic relationship of sugarcane cultivars more precisely.