Shylaja, M RPujaita GhoshKAU2019-06-282019-06-282013http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810110512PGGinger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.), one of the widely cultivated and consumed spices worldwide, is well known for its medicinal properties also. As the natural variability stands limited in the crop, induction of variability through tissue culture techniques was attempted at College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara from 1996 onwards. After indepth investigations on the somaclones regenerated, two varieties viz., “Athira” and “Karthika” were released during 2010 and four clones viz. B3, 292R, 88R and 478R were selected as superior somaclones. For the newly released ginger varieties and selected superior somaclones in pipeline for release, no fingerprint data are available for genotype identification and protecting the plant varieties / clones. The investigations on “DNA fingerprinting of released varieties and selected superior somaclones of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.)” were carried out at the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Biology (CPBMB), College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur during the period from January 2012 to March 2013. The objectives of the study were to characterize two released varieties and four selected superior somaclones using molecular markers and to develop a DNA fingerprint specific to each variety / somaclone. Morphological characters like growth habit and size and shape of the rhizomes were found to vary in the varieties / somaclones studied. The somaclone 292R could be distinguished based on its dwarf plant stature and dark green leaves. The variety Athira has bold and flat rhizomes while the variety Karthika has medium bold and round rhizomes. Quantitative clustering for vegetative and rhizome characters attempted as per Mahalanobis D2 analysis could group the varieties and somaclones into three separate clusters. Of the seven vegetative characters analysed, plant height and number of tillers showed more divergence. The number of fingers, girth of primary and secondary fingers, thickness of flesh and inner core were the characters which exhibited more divergence for the rhizome characters. For molecular characterization, good quality genomic DNA extracted from ginger varieties / somaclones using CTAB (Rogers and Bendich, 1994) method was used. Thirty five RAPD and thirty ISSR primers were screened for amplification of genomic DNA and ten RAPD and eleven ISSR primers were selected based on the amplification pattern. DNA fingerprints of the varieties / somaclones were developed utilizing the clear, distinct bands generated in RAPD and ISSR profiles and size of the bands. Different colour codes were assigned for sharing of bands between varieties / clones to generate specific fingerprints. The RAPD marker system could bring out unique bands in the variety Karthika and somaclones B3, 292R and 478R. The RAPD primer, OPA 12 produced unique band in Karthika and B3, the primer OPA 04 in 292R and the primer OPA 28 in 478R. ISSR marker system could also bring out unique band in the variety Athira with primer ISSR 06. The RAPD, ISSR and combined fingerprints developed for each variety / somaclone were unique. Variability in the somaclones and the extent of variability from source parent cultivars were analysed using cluster analysis. The dendrogram seperated Maran and Rio-de-Janeiro somaclones in two separate clusters. Somaclones derived from cultivar Maran exhibited more variability than somaclones from Rio-de- Janeiro. The variety Athira was more diverse from the source parent cultivar Maran. Similarly, the somaclone 292R was more diverse from the source parent cultivar Rio-de-Janeiro. The Resolving Power (Rp) of RAPD and ISSR primers ranged from 6.00 to 16.25, indicating the ability of the selected primers to distinguish the varieties / clones most efficiently. The Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) ranged from 0.67 to 0.88, indicating the suitability of the selected primers for DNA fingerprinting. RAPD, ISSR and combined fingerprints developed specific for the ginger varieties / somaclones could be utilized for registration, documentation of varieties and for settling IPR issues.ennullThesis