Analysis of morphological, biochemical and molecular diversity in karonda (Carissa carandas L.) germplasm

Abstract

Introduction – An attempt was made to analyze the morphological, biochemical and molecular diversity in karonda (Carissa carandas L.) populations maintained at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research in Bangalore, India, using a multivariate analysis approach. Materials and methods – Morphological and biochemical traits were recorded and evaluated for variance and mean comparisons. Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) molecular markers were used for generating information on genetic variation and relationships among the accessions. Mantel test was used for comparing the distance matrices derived from morphological, biochemical and molecular markers. Results and discussion – Significant variation was found in fruit-related morphological characters and fruit quality traits. The combined analysis used in this study successfully categorized the different karonda accessions into various clusters based on genetic diversity and also established relatedness among them. A high correlation was found between Euclidean distance matrices of biochemical and morphological data. Conclusion – This work will be useful for the breeders working on this future crop for characterization, genotype identification, and selection of parents.