Genetic diversity of commercially grown Moringa oleifera Lam. cultivars from India by RAPD, ISSR and cytochrome P450-based markers

Moringa oleifera is a less used, drought-tolerant
tropical plant, rich in nutritionally and nutraceutically
important bioactive compounds. It is native to India and
now under cultivation in many countries, but no data is
available on genetic variability. Three DNA marker techniques,
i.e., random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD),
inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and cytochrome P450
gene-based markers were used for the detection of genetic
variability in eight Indian cultivars of M. oleifera, collected
from various states of India. A total of 17 RAPD, 6 ISSR
and 7 pairs of cytochrome P450-based markers generated
48.68, 48.57 and 40.00 % polymorphisms, respectively.
The marker index (MI) for each of these marker systems
(3.25 for RAPD, 4.73 ISSR and 2.95 for Cyt P450-based
markers) suggest that ISSR markers are the most effective
for assessment of genetic diversity. Based on the three
types of marker data, the eight cultivars of M. oleifera were
grouped into four sub-clusters in a dendrogram, but without
any distinct geographical pattern. This suggests spread of
planting material and high rates of gene flow through cross
pollination. High bootstrap values (94.4 and 82.3) were
obtained at major nodes of the dendrogram using the
winboot software. The dendrogram and PCA plots generated
from the binary data matrices of the three marker
systems were found highly concordant to each other. This
study reveals a huge genetic diversity among the cultivars
and this can be utilised for conservation and cultivar
development in breeding programmes to produce high
yielding, nutritionally superior cultivars.