Morphological and Genetic Diversity Analysis in a Germplasm Bank of <i>Dendrocalamus stocksii</i> (Munro.) - Implications on Conservation

Abstract

Dendrocalamus stocksii is an economically important strong solid and thorn less bamboo species which is endemic to Westerns Ghats of India. Increase in utilization of this species has embarked the importance of conservation, diversity study, propagation and plantation aspects. Out study aims to analyse the morphological and genetic diversity among the ex-situ conserved 14 Candidate plus clumps (CPCs) established at Bamboo germplasm bank of IWST, Bangalore. This is the first report on diversity studies of D.stocksii. The morphological diversity data among the 14 candidate plus clumps (CPCs) originated from different regions revealed variability in terms of culm height, diameter, internodal length, no. of culms/clump and solid and hollowness of the culms. Highest culm diameter and number of culms/clump were recorded in PS-27. In this study, the genetic diversity existing in the fourteen CPCs was estimated using ISSR–PCR. Eight ISSR primers amplified fifty three amplicons in the size ranging from 225 to 1480. The total number of polymorphic bands varied from three to nine with 71.26 % polymorphic banding profiles. Unweighted Pair group Method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) revealed two major clusters. Dice similarity coefficient ranges from 0.48 to 1.00. Genetic diversity studies based on location divided all the 14 genotypes in to three clusters Sirsi, Dandeli and Ponda. Existence of 60-70% genetic diversity in the species dominated with vegetative multiplication and sporadic flowering habit is a noteworthy for a germplasm bank and its contribution for future conservation programmes.