Genetic Diversity and Identification of Variety-specific RAPD and ISSR Markers in Foeniculum vulgare

Inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) and random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were used to determine genetic relationships and variety specific markers in fennel varieties grown in Rajasthan. In this study, the percentage polymorphism revealed by RAPD and ISSR was 50 and 39.1%, respectively. Dendrogram constructed from unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean cluster analysis based on RAPD and ISSR data showed clear genetic relationships among these germplasms. Similar clustering was obtained when another software DARwin 5 was used to construct tree plot from factorial analysis based on RAPD and ISSR data. Besides, from the bands amplified, there were three independent ways to identify the fennel varieties, such as unique RAPD and ISSR markers, unique band patterns and a combination of the band patterns provided by different primers. Finally, the molecular fingerprints have been generated for five fennel varieties, namely FNL-41, 46, RF-125, 143 and 178. These could be distinguished by using specific 10 RAPD and four ISSR markers, which showed either presence or absence of bands generated by seven RAPD and four ISSR primers.