Raju Chaudhary1*, Raj Kumar Niroula1, Shrawan Kumar Sah1, Pradip Kumar Yadav1, Bal Krishna Joshi1, Bishnu Raj Ojha2, and Surya Kant Ghimire2
1Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal, 2Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Rampur, Nepal
Abstract
Large Cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) is major cash generating spice crop of Nepal, mainly confined to the eastern hills of Nepal. Fourteen large cardamom samples collected from Taplejung, Panchthar and Ilam Districts of Nepal during 2012 were used to evaluate genetic diversity using RAPD markers. Total of fifty one decamer primers (Operon series) were initially used for the experiment but only eighteen primers were selected based on nature of polymorphic and reproducibility for the analysis. Out of 133 loci generated 97.74% were found to be polymorphic with number of alleles 1.977±0.013 and number of effective alleles 1.409±0.024. Considering a single population Nei's genetic diversity over all loci generated was found to be 0.263±0.012 with Shannon's information index 0.416. On UPGMA clustering, two main clusters were observed that clearly separate wild cultivars (Churumpha) from commercially grown cultivars. The RAPD markers showed sufficient polymorphism for genotype discrimination and experimental reproducibility. Incorporation of molecular approaches over conventional method of genetic diversity assessment is very much effective in pinpointing the potential genetic diversity for cardamom improvement.
Keywords: Large Cardamom (Amomum subulatum), Churumpha, RAPD, decamer, genetic diversity