Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(3): 794-809 794 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.703.093 Molecular Diversity Analysis in Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill) Genotypes and its Implications for Conservation and Crop Breeding Sharda Choudhary * , Radheshyam Sharma, R.S. Meena and Arvind Kumar Verma ICAR-National Research Centre on Seed Spices, Ajmer 305-206 (Rajasthan), India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction India is known as the “'Land of Spices” and largest producer, consumer and exporter of seed spices and their products in the world. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill), 2n=22 an important open cross-pollinated crop, belong to family Apiaceae and is mainly grown for seeds. It is also used in folk medicine for its balasimic, cardiotonic, digestive, lactogogue and tonic properties (Saleha, 2011; Saravanaperumal and Terza, 2012; Choudhary et al., 2017). Fennel seeds contain essential oil which has a valuable antioxidant, antibacterial, anticancer and antifungal activity (El-Awadi and Hassan, 2010). In India fennel is cultivated covering a total area of about 76000 ha with annual production of 129350 tonnes (DASD, 205-16). The importance of fennel was recognized long back due to its medicinal values and export potential as spices however it is remain International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 03 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Seed spices are most valuable crops having a good export potential to boost national economy. Among all seed spices, fennel has their prime importance in medicinal and nationwide market. This crop is highly variable and rich in molecular variability. Two DNA based molecular marker techniques viz., Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR), were used to study the molecular diversity among 17 fennel genotypes. A total of 26 polymorphic primers (16 random and 10 ISSR) were used. Amplification of genomic DNA of 17 genotypes, using RAPD analysis, yielded 79 fragments, in which 58 (73.41%) were polymorphic. The 10 ISSR primers produced 59 bands across 17 genotypes, of which 51 (86.44%) were polymorphic. The similarity coefficient ranged from 0.34 to 0.76 and 0.36 to 0.87. Based on the similarity matrix data dendrogram were prepared using UPGMA method. Genotypes were also classified into groups and several subgroups, respectively. Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCA) confirmed the separation of fennel genotypes into groups comparable to those from UPGMA analysis. The high rate of polymorphic lines generated by RAPD and ISSR markers indicated that the method is efficient to analyze molecular diversity in fennel genotypes and that the molecular divergence can be used to establish consistent heterotic groups between fennel genotypes. Hence, molecular markers proud to be, superior in assessing differences among genetically very similar genotypes and efficiently utilized in plant breeding programme for improvement of crops. Keywords Fennel, ISSR, Molecular diversity, Molecular marker, Polymorphism, RAPD Accepted: 07 February 2018 Available Online: 10 March 2018 Article Info