Evaluation of Genetic Diversity in Antiaris toxicaria Lesch. from Sacred Groves of the Western Ghats, India

Antiaris toxicaria Lesch. is a deciduous tree belongs to the family Moraceae, is native to the Old World tropics. It is an important industrial forest plant for its veneer, plywood and medicinal values. In the present study, genetic diversity of different populations of A. toxicaria collected from sacred groves of the Western Ghats, India has been evaluated. Thirteen RAPD and ten ISSR primers produced a total of 175 and 143 reproducible bands, respectively. RPI 10 of RAPD primers used showed maximum (0.49) polymorphic information content (PIC), while UBC 809 (0.37) exhibits maximum PIC among ISSR primers. Nei’s genetic similarity showed that pairwise similarity coefficients ranged from 0.460 to 0.832 in RAPD analysis, whereas 0.550–0.842 in ISSR analysis. Understanding the genetic diversity among natural A. toxicaria populations will be useful for effective long-term conservation.