RAPD MARKERS BASED GENETIC DIVERSITY OF SAFFLOWER (CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS L.) GERMPLASM

Genetic diversity is extremely significant for the new crop varieties development with elevated yield and other advantageous characters. Molecular level genetic diversity amongst 12 safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) accessions was studied via Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Genomic DNA was extracted and optimized PCR protocol for amplification with 08 random primers which produced an entirety 80 amplified fragments with an average polymorphic loci percentage 71 (88.7%). Each primer produced 6 to 13 bands with standard of 10 bands for each primer. Pair wise similarity indices vary from 0.50-0.80 amongst the 12 accessions. Accessions '16337' and '26778' showed the highest similarity index of 80%, whereas the most varied accessions were '26789' and '26748' (50%). All accessions were grouped into three main clusters based on Un-weighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic averages (UPGMA). Accession number 26753 was different from rest of the safflower accessions which made a separate cluster. In conclusion, even we used only eight molecular primers for this genetic diversity assessment, but showed good result. Our excremental work will be highly supportive for the conservation and improvement of safflower germplasm for the future research and cultivation of this important oil yielding crop in the country.