Study of Genetic Diversity among Philodendron Varieties by Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA Markers

In the present study, randomly amplified polymorphic dna (rapd)markers were used to analyze the genetic diversity in 20 varieties ofphilodendron. the polymerase chain reaction was performed with 60 rapdprimers, out of which 21 primers showed clear amplification as well as morepolymorphism. in total, 354 scorable rapd loci with 348 polymorphicbands (98%) were observed. percentages of polymorphic bands ranged from80% to 100%. amplified dna fragments were used for statistical analysis.the data was obtained by scoring the bands and analyzed by using statisticasoftware. a dendrogram was obtained by cluster analysis based on thepresence or absence of band which indicates similarity and diversities. thecluster analysis grouped the philodendron varieties based on the growthhabits, morphological characters and also geographical origin. this indicatesthat there is an association between the rapd patterns and the geographicorigin of the varieties used. the genetic diversity among the varieties wasmoderate, which might be due to genetically heterozygous and somaclonalvariation.