Genetic Diversity of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) Genotypes Assessed by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Markers

A study was conducted to assess the magnitude of genetic diversity through RAPD markers among 33 genotypes of naturally grown lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) found in Bihar (India). A significant amount of polymorphism was detected by 21 RAPD primers. Among the genetic variation statistics, the highest values of number of polymorphic loci (32), polymorphic loci percent (96.97%), observed number of alleles (Na) 1.97, and effective number of alleles (Ne) 1.85 were analyzed. Nei’s gene diversity ranged from 0.29 (OPL-04) to 0.44 (OPL-05), with an average value of 0.38 indicating a moderate level of variability. Shannon’s information index (I) 0.61, and polymorphic information content (PIC) 0.72 were observed. UPGMA similarity dendrogram was generated from RAPD genomic data. Jaccard’s similarity coefficient ranged from 0.52 to 0.86 for 33 lotus genotypes. All genotypes were grouped in two clusters. Cluster I with BRL-01 and BRL-08 were presented as highly diverse genotypes recognized with 120.80 and 118.40 number of petals in white colour, and in Cluster II genotype BRL-21 and BRL-22 were presented as diverse genotypes with 111.80 and 111.20 numbers of petals per flower in pink colour. Overall, a moderate degree of genetic diversity was ascertained among all 33 genotypes used in the study.