title: Conservation genetics of endangered medicinal plant Commiphora wightii in Indian Thar Desert.
abstract: To ascertain the conservation priorities and strategies for Commiphora wightii, an endangered medicinal plant of Indian Thar Desert, genetic diversity was estimated within and among different populations. The total of 155 amplification products were scored using ten each of RAPD and ISSR primers, exhibiting an overall 86.72% polymorphism across 45 individuals representing eight populations. The cumulative data of two markers were used to compute pair-wise distances. The Neighbor-Joining tree revealed high genetic differentiation among populations except Kiradu population. Nei's gene diversity (h) ranged between 0.082 and 0.193 with total diversity at species level is 0.294. Shannon's information index (I) ranged between 0.118 and 0.275 with an overall diversity of 0.439. Analysis of molecular variance showed more diversity among population level (56.65%) than at within population level (43.35%). The low gene flow value (Nm=0.349) and high coefficient of genetic differentiation (GST=0.589) and high fixation index (FST=0.566) demonstrated elevated genetic differentiation among the population and can be predicted that these populations are not in Hardy-Weinberg proportions. Principal Co-ordinate Analysis confirms that Akal population has become phylogenetically more distinct and less diverse than the rest of the samples. Mantel's test revealed no correlation between genetic and geographical distances of populations (R(2)=0.122). Overall highest diversity was observed in the population of Machiya Safari Park and Kiradu, while lowest in Akal population, later may constitute an evolutionary significant unit, having merit for special management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur 313 001, India; Department of Botany, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur 342 033, India. Electronic address: harish_mangesh@rediffmail.com.
authors.lastname: Harish
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur 342 033, India.
authors.forename: Amit Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur 342 033, India.
authors.forename: Mahendra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Phulwaria
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur 342 033, India.
authors.forename: Manoj Kumar
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur 342 033, India.
authors.forename: Narpat Singh
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Shekhawat
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D029744:Commiphora / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D018744:DNA, Plant; D003889:Desert Climate; D056727:Endangered Species; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D007194:India; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant
keywords: AMOVA; CTAB; Conservation; Genetic diversity; Guggal; ISSR; PCR; PCoA; Principal Co-ordinate Analysis; RAPD; analysis of molecular variance; cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide; dNTP; deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate; inter simple sequence repeat; polymerase chain reaction; random amplified polymorphic DNA