Intraspecific Isozymes Variation in Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari: A Traditional Hypocholesteremic Medicinal Shrub from Gujarat, India

Abstract

ABSTRACT Germplasm of 22 accessions of Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari, a medicinal shrub, endowed with curative properties against a variety of ailments was collected from various parts of Gujarat and grown in a field gene bank under identical conditions. Young leaves were collected to prepare crude enzyme extracts and were analyzed using nine enzyme systems to determine the allele frequency, Polymorphic loci (P), Allele number (A), Shannon's information index (I), Heterozygosity and homozygosity, genetic distance and identity. These enzyme systems provided total 13 loci and 31 alleles for 22 accessions of C. wightii. The mean percentage of polymorphic loci was 30.42% and the mean observed number of alleles per locus (A) was 1.5. The highest Shannon's information index was noticed in PRX-3 with mean genetic variation for all loci was 0.603. Average observed (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) were 0.381 and 0.221, respectively, show moderate levels of genetic variation among different accessions. The genetic identity (I) was observed highest between accessions IC-370 and IC-378 and lowest between accessions IC-389 and IC-377. Dendrogram based on UPGMA clearly depicted the spectra of genetic diversity among various accessions and formed into two major groups and divided into six clusters. Nei's genetic distance was found to be highest between the accessions IC-389 and IC-375 and minimum between the accessions IC-383 and IC-380. Based on the results of this study, that the accessions IC-370 and IC-373 should be conserved and maintained in the field gene bank for future use.