Advances in Crop Science and Technology
Open Access

Abstract

Heliconia a trendiest specialty cut flower of tropics is securing popularity for its inflorescence’s charismatic form and alluringly blended hues in the world and in Indian market too. It is a monophyletic genus with roughly 200 to 250 species of neotropical origin. It resides alone in Heliconiaceae family of Zingiberales order former incorporated in Musaceae for fusion of inverted flowers, single staminode and drupe type fruits elite for it. Exploitation of molecular markers may aid in perceptive recognition of several species and varieties of them since taxonomic confusions and uncertainties subsist amid them. In this context, ten species and varieties were analyzed using RAPD markers. Chosen thirty primers among seventy, amplified 1281 polymorphic DNA fragments with each primer giving a mean of 42.7 polymorphic bands. The genetic similarity matrix constructed with Jaccard’s coefficient using RAPD marker scores showed that the highest value was between H. psittacorum var. Choconiana and H. psittacorum var. Lady Di (0.384), while the lowest was between H. psittacorum var. Choconiana and H. stricta var. Dwarf Jamaican Red (0.244). Ten species and varieties of Heliconia formed three distinct clusters at similarity coefficient value of 0.33, implying a parallelism between genetic and morphologic or taxonomic variability of Heliconia genotypes. Golden Torch, Choconiana, Lady Di and H. wagneriana included in cluster I while Choconiana, Lady Di formed a more cohesive entity. On the contrary, H. stricta var. Dwarf Jamaican Red produced a separate cluster validating that taxonomically related entries clustered together and distant ones segregated. So, the current sequels demonstrate that RAPD is a rapid, relatively economical and functional for the characterization of genetic divergence between different Heliconia genotypes.

Biography

Moumita Malakar is a Senior Research Fellow (INSPIRE Fellow) at University of Calcutta, India, pursuing Doctoral program on Horticulture, specializing in Floriculture & Landscaping. She studied longevity of few ornamental foliages and flowers.
Email:moumitamalakar7@gmail.com