EVALUATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONGST MULBERRY VARIETIES Morus alba BY RAPD MARKER

Mulberry leaves are sole food for silkworms in sericulture. Breeding is necessary for these plants to develop varieties of mulberry with improved yield, quality, and tolerance to drought and diseases. Thus, in the present study an attempt has been made successfully to assess the genetic diversity among Mulberry varieties by using RAPD marker. A total 10 collections of mulberry varieties from various eco-geographical regions of India were utilized to assessment of molecular diversity and interrelationship. The isolated and quantified DNA was amplified using10 RAPD markers. RAPD analysis generated total 409 bands with 306 polymorphic bands. Most of the RAPD markers show in an average 75% polymorphism. The similarity coefficient of pair wise Nei and Li’s value range between 0 to 7.39 for 10 varieties of Mulberry plants. A dendrogram was constructed using Un-weight Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) revealing 6 clusters with wide range of dissimilarity values showed a high degree of diversity among the cultivars. Thus, all the accessions studied are genetically highly polymorphic, and the information generated can be used to design strategies for conservation of germplasm in plant breeding programmes. This can be utilized to develop new varieties with beneficial characteristics.