Abstract

Inter population genetic diversity analysis was undertaken between four Pinus roxburghii populations of India using ISSR markers. A total of 72 accessions of genomic DNA from mature needles from four distantly located populations (two native/natural from sub-tropical forests and two provenance trial plantations in plains) were isolated and subjected to ISSR analysis. The percent band polymorphism was 100%, observed number of alleles (na*-2.00), effective number of allele (ne*-1.30), Nei’s Gene diversity/Heterozygosity (h*-0.19) and Shanon’s information index (I*- 0.31). For these 4 populations upon inter-population genetic diversity analysis, Gene flow (Nm*-1.39) was obtained. Unweighted paired group method with arithmetic mean for similarity index and genetic distances were calculated using Jaccard’s coefficient. The highest genetic distance of 0.0904 was obtained between native and provenance trial plantation. Likewise, for similarity index the clusters in the dendrogram were found separated at 0.3 to 0.4 similarity values, indicating robust separations. Such type of diversity analysis will be helpful in raising sustainable plantation forestry programs in plains of India for this species. Diversity analysis data using distinctly located populations of P. roxburghii has been done for the first time in Indian provenances.

Key words: Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR), genetic diversity, inter-population diversity analysis, Nei’s gene diversity, Shannon’s information index.

Abbreviation

Abbreviations: PA, Palampur; DJ, darjeeling; GG, gureghar; RJ, rajahmundry.