Genetic Characterization of Locally Cultivated Taro Germplasm from Eleven District of Nagaland, India

Colocasia or taro (Colocasia esculanta L.) is one of the important tuber crops, which has been grown by farmers in rain-fed ecosystem and considered as an important food crop after rice in Nagaland. The characterization of taro from 11 districts of Nagaland, Northeast India has been analyzed using microsatellite markers. Twenty eight microsatellite markers were used to analyze 50 accessions of taro collected from 11 district of Nagaland. A total of 53 alleles were amplified at an average of 1.89 alleles per locus. Both altered alleles and null alleles were observed. The number of alleles ranged from one to four. The overall size of amplified products ranged from 117bp to 685bp. Dendrogram based on UPGMA analysis separated the accessions into five clusters. Four definite clusters were identified at a level of 35% similarity among the individuals. A three dimensional plot prepared from the principal component analysis of fifty-three alleles with PIC values ranging from 0.41 - 0.93 indicating high specificity and discriminatory power of the markers. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed most variation among individuals within population at 100%. It appears that high within population variation is a characteristic of colocasia. The present study showed that the germplasm of Nagaland was diverse but somewhat uniformly distributed across the state. Further exploration and collection of colocasia germplasm is required.