Abstract

Eleusine coracana is an annual allotetraploid (2n=4x=36) that belongs to grass family, Poaceae. This research aimed to investigate level of genetic diversity of 80 accessions using ISSR markers. DNA was extracted from a bulk of three plants per accession using a modified CTAB method. Six ISSR primers amplified a total of 45 clear and reproducible bands. The total genetic diversity (H) and Shannon’s diversity information index (I) for the entire populations was 0.28 and 0.41, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance in both grouping and without grouping revealed larger genetic diversity within the populations (58.54%) than among populations (41.45%). Of the total genetic diversity, 5.88% was attributed to populations within groups, 38.33% was attributed to among groups and 55.79% was attributed to differences within populations. Both unweighted pair- group method with arithmetic average phenograms and a neighbor joining trees were constructed for the individuals and populations using Jaccard’s similarity coefficient. Most individuals from all populations tended to form their own cluster, while only few of the individuals were distributed all over the tree. Generally, the result of the present study confirmed the presence of genetically diversified accessions that can be used to improve the productivity, collection, conservation and sustainable use.

Key words: Eleusine coracana, gene flow, genetic diversity, inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker, unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA).

Abbreviation

AFLP,    Amplified      fragment     length    polymorphism; AMOVA, analysis of molecular variance; CTAB, cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide; 2D, two dimensions; 3D, three dimensions; EDTA, ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid; H, Nei”s genetic diversity; I, Shannon information index; ISSR, inter simple sequence repeat; NJ, neighbor joining; NPL, number of polymorphic loci;  PCO, principal coordinate; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; PPL, percent of polymorphic loci; RAPD, random amplified polymorphic DNA; RFLP, restriction fragment length polymorphism; SSR, simple sequence  repeat;  TBE,  trisborate EDTA; TE, tris EDTA; UPGMA, unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean.