Analysis of the Genetic Diversity of Sweet Thai Tamrind Introduced from Thailand Based on RAPD Markers

Random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD) was employed to study the genetic variation and genetic relationship of 10 sweet Thai tamarind(Tamarindus indica) cultivars introduced from Thailand.The RAPD analysis showed that 34 of 52 amplified bands(65.38%) were polymorphic within the species,while the mean percentage of polymorphic bands within cultivars was 25.96%.The number of alleles A_o,effective number of alleles A_e,Nei's gene diversity H,and Shannon's information index I for the species were 1.653 8,1.199 9,0.137 1 and 0.227 9,respectively,and for the cultivars were on average 1.259 6,1.164 7,0.094 6 and 0.140 3,respectively.The largest proportion of the total RAPD diversity was found within,rather than among the cultivars(G_ST=0.163).The genetic distance between cultivars ranged from 0.013 1 to 0.124 4,and on average was 0.047.An analysis of 10 cultivars using UPGMA showed that the introduced sweet Thai tamarind cultivars could be divided into three groups by 0.02 genetic distance,the first group included Zichupoton,Buangka,Barchan,Shampoo andZiton cultivar,the second group included Sritong,Srichompo,Prakaythong and Sritongbao cultivar,and the third group included only Bargeton cultivar.The basic data were provided for further development and improvement of the cultivars in this study.