RAPD-PCR ANALYSIS OF BIXA ORELLANA L. AND SALACIA CHINENS L. TO STUDY GENETIC DIVERSITY

Bixa orellana L. and Salacia chinensis L. are medicinal plants and native tropical trees of S ri Lanka and Southern region of India which are used in Indian s ystem of medicine to treat various diseases. There is a need to preserve and explore their quantum of genetic va riation by analysing the polymorphism between the t hese plants. Therefore, our aim was to analyse interrela tionship and genetic polymorphism between these plants by RAPD Profiling. RAPD is a technique that is based o n the amplification of DNA by the use of the polyme rase chain reaction (PCR) with short nonspecific primers . RAPD results in amplification of genome regions f lanked by the specific priming sites. Our research work su ggests that there is much lesser genetic variation between the two species. Both of these plants reproduced four h ighly monomorphic bands. Thus, study will help in determining genetic variation among Bixa orellana L. and Salacia chinensis L. which are medicinally important and will develop ways to conserve the medicinal asp ects of them .