COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RAPD AND ISSR IN CHARACTERISATION OF GEOPHILA REPENS L.

Geophila repens, of the family Rubiaceae, is used as a hepatoprotectant in the folk medical practices in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala,India. This plant is also reported to possess several other medicinal properties. Being restricted to specific pockets in under covers of forest areas, the accessibility to this plant is quite difficult. Further, due to scarcity in distribution there is a threat to its existence due to over exploitation, urbanization and industrialization. In order to formulate effective conservation strategies for frequently exploited plants, assessment of its genetic diversity and population structure is urgent. Genetic diversity among accessions of a plant can be analysed using various marker techniques. Molecular characterization of the accessions of G. repens was done using RAPD and ISSR markers. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers and ISSR markers are widely applicable because they are rapid, inexpensive, simple to perform, do not require prior knowledge of DNA sequence and require very little starting DNA template. A total of 11 accessions of G. repens were collected from various localities, out of which 10 accessions were from Kerala and one from Andaman islands. RAPD analysis was carried out using a set of 20 decamer primers. ISSR analysis was also carried out in G. repens. The analysis was carried out using a set of 12 primers. The effectiveness of the molecular markers used for the characterization of Geophila was analysed at various levels like polymorphism, Polymorphism information content (PIC) and resolving power (Rp) and primer index values in the case of DNA based markers. This reveals the efficiency of ISSR marker system compared to RAPD.