Molecular Variability in Isolates of Rhizoctonia bataticola Causing Root Rot in Chickpea Using RAPD Markers

Dry root rot caused by Rhizoctonia bataticola (Taub.) Butler is emerging as a serious biotic constraint for chickpea production. It is soil borne fungal pathogen. The losses in chickpea due to Rhizoctonia bataticola may be as high as 60 per cent. The eight isolates of Rhizoctonia bataticola were collected from different districts of Maharashtra. The genomic DNA of 8 isolates of Rhizoctonia bataticola isolated from fresh mycelium of fungus grown in Potato Dextrose Broth solution and subjected to amplification with RAPD marker for diversity analysis. Amplified product of RAPD were resolved by electrophoresis and photographed under gel documentation system. Randomly selected 10 decamer primer amplified 101 RAPD marker loci. Out of these 101 bands, 85 bands (84.16 %) were polymorphic. Similarity coefficient values for 8 accessions of Rhizoctonia bataticola using RAPD markers was 0.35 – 0.73. The RAPD banding pattern reflected the genetic diversity among the isolates by formation of two clusters.