Assessment of diversity among cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) genotypes based on RAPD analysis

Random Amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) is used to determine genetic diversity of cowpea genotypes collected from different regions of India. A high diversity within population and high genetic differentiation among them were analyzed. Total 194 bands were generated among them 152 bands were found polymorphic with an average 7.6 bands per primer. The average percentage of polymorphism across 20 primers was 78.83 %. A high level of average genetic diversity was observed. A dendrogram produced by the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) based on Jaccard‟s similarity coefficient revealed two groups. The overall range of genetic similarities ranged from 0.533 to 0.790 in 20 genotypes of cowpea which indicates there was high variability among the genotypes. Based on genetic distance in RAPD analysis the genotypes viz., C-152, PGCP-11 and PGCP-6 appeared as most divergent and could be used in breeding programme of cowpea. Our results indicate that RAPD approach analysis seemed to be best suited for assessing with high accuracy the genetic relationships among distinct cowpea genotypes