Ambika Baldev GaikwadPRABHU P2019-06-042019-06-042018http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810106757t-10006Kokum, botanically Garcinia indica Choisy (Thouras), is a commercially underutilised perennial tree species native to the South-western region of the Indian subcontinent. A set of forty three accessions maintained at field gene bank NBPGR regional station, Trissur. These accessions have been collected from twenty-nine locations in nine districts representing four states i.e. Karnataka (34 accessions), Kerala (6 accessions), Maharashtra (2 accessions) and Goa (1 accession). Twenty-nine of these accessions were analysed for twelve morphological descriptors. The dendrogram based on Euclidean distances shows that these accessions grouped into three main clusters. Based on morphological data used in the present study, the accessions IC342306 and IC342322 collected from Uttar Kannada and Shimoga respectively were most similar to each other with a minimum pairwise distance value of 1.19, and IC550571 and IC552528 collected from Trissur and Kodagu respectively were most distant with a maximum pairwise distance of 9.95. Further, principal coordinate analysis was constructed to identify genetic clustering of the 29 accessions using Euclidean distance. The percentage of variance for first three coordinates were 40.7%, 18.46% and 11.85% with cumulative variance of 71.01%.In the present study fifty ISSR primers were screened for identification of primers useful for amplification in kokum. Fourteen were identified and these were used for diversity analysis among forty three accessions. The percentage of polymorphic bands produced was 79.1%. IC409060 and IC550571 collected from Kasargod and Trissur respectively are most similar with a minimum distance based on 72 ISSR and 10 SSR markers. Uttar Kannada and Trissur (IC342306 and IC550572) are most distant with maximum distance value of 0.568. These accessions that group into clusters based on molecular data, conforming to their geographical locations. All 43 accessions divided into nine populations, since codominant markers are more reliable for population study, SSR markers were used for this analysis. All populations were designated as per the districts of collection as indicated in the passport data. Analysis of genetic diversity between the populations showed that a maximum distance value of 0.25 was observed between populations eight and nine i.e. .North Goa and Ratnagiri. Minimum distance value of 0.0014 seen between populations two and four i.e. Kasargod and kodagu. Diversity across the populations ranges from 0.0014 and 0.25.The average distance across the population (Nei’s genetic distance) calculated was 0.084. F statistics indicate moderate genetic differentiation among the individuals analysed. The gene flow among the accessions is 33%. This study revealed that sufficient diversity in the accessions maintained at field gene bank of NBPGR regional station, Trissur.en-USnullThesis