Molecular characterization and genetic diversity assessment in Mandukaparni (Centella asiatica L.) accessions

Abstract

Abstract Centella asiatica L. is an important herbaceous perennial medicinal plant commonly known as Mandukparni or Indian pennywort or Jalbrahmi or Gotu kola. It has been widely used in various traditional and modern medicine for its medicinal and nutritional properties. Although Centella asiatica L. is widely distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions of India, only limited attempts have been made in exploiting diversity in conservation and crop improvement. Thus, the present study was aimed to assess the molecular diversity of its seventeen accessions by employing Simple Sequence Repeat markers. Among the twenty primers, eighteen primers showed seventy-five polymorphic bands which generated 97.40% polymorphism and two primers gave monomorphic bands across the accessions. The Polymorphism Information Content values ranged from 0.20 to 0.34 with an average of 0.26. The unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean dendrogram grouped the accessions into two major clusters. The highest molecular distance shown at 56% in between the accessions (IIHR CA-5 and IIHR CA-16, IIHR CA-17) and (IIHR CA-8 and IIHR CA-17) revealed the most diverse pairs of accessions in comparison with other accessions. The results showed that Simple Sequence Repeat markers are suitable for assessing the genetic diversity of Centella asiatica accessions and the most diverse pairs of germplasms that is (IIHR CA-5 and IIHR CA 16, IIHR CA 17) and (IIHR CA-8 and IIHR CA 17) can be utilized in breeding programmes to widen the genetic base in this genetic crop improvement.