Analysis of Genetic Diversity among Populations of an Endangered Medicinal Plant Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari (Guggul) using Molecular Markers.

Commiphora wightii has massive economic value and a wide array of medicinal uses in both ancient and modern therapeutics. It has been observed that the number of C. wightii populations in Rajasthan are declining substantially because of anthropogenic activities in the form of over-exploitation for resin and fuel. Very limited molecular studies have been reported on the molecular characterization of Commiphora wightii at national and international level. The present investigation aims to assess the genetic diversity within and among different populations to determine the relationship of genetic variability with geographical distribution of Rajasthan and to offer genetic resource information for future meaningful implementation of conservation programs applicable for C. wightii. The present study comprised of 11 RAPD markers generated 37 loci of which two were polymorphic with an average 4.85% DNA polymorphism. The maximum polymorphism (33.33%) was detected for OPU-8 marker. Similarly, 9 ISSR markers generated 47 loci of which 10 were polymorphic with an average 22.11% DNA polymorphism. The maximum polymorphism (33.33%) was observed for ISSR marker 811P, 814P and UBC857. Jaccard's similarity coefficient varied from 0.55-1.00 among the populations of Commiphora wightii using all the ISSR marker, while it ranges 0.20-0.95 for RAPD markers. The row dendrogram constructed using unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages or UPGMA with a SAHN module of the NTSYS software which showed a phenetic representation of genetic relationships as revealed by the similarity coefficient for all the ISSR and RAPD profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]