Assessment of Genetic Variation in Selected Members of Family Apocynaceae using SDS-PAGE

Abstract

Genetic variation of any plant species is very interesting in reducing genetic vulnerability as well as stabilizing production. In this regard, a study was undertaken to analyze the genetic variation among selected members of family Apocynaceae by using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). In this study, a total of 53 protein bands were analyzed, out of them all bands were polymorphic with a total of 100% polymorphism. The electrophoresis of the proteins revealed protein bands in the range of 151 kD to less than 11 kD molecular weight. The similarity index calculated on the basis of presence and absence of protein bands ranged from 0.04 to 0.200. A dendrogram was constructed based on UPGMA (unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages) clustering method revealed three clusters. Cluster I contained three species namely Thevetia peruviana, Catharanthus roseus and Nerium indicum, in which Thevetia peruviana and Catharanthus roseus were more close than Nerium indicum, while cluster II included only one species namely Rauvolfia serpentina. Carissa carandus emerged as the most primitive species forming an out group (cluster III). Thus, this study revealed that the SDS-PAGE method plays a key role in the study of protein based variation among selected plant species.