Assessment of genetic diversity among population of Aquilaria malaccensis Lam. from Tripura, India, revealed by ISSR and SSR markers

Abstract

Aquilaria malaccensis is an evergreen tree found in the foothills of the sub-Himalayan region of Northeast India, Bangladesh, Burma, and Malaysia. This endangered plant has immense ecological and economical importance due to its agarwood-producing property. The use of agarwood in perfumery and medicinal purposes is of great antiquity. Due to high demand for agarwood, people are chopping down the plant at an alarming rate. In order to elucidate genetic diversity attendant in this important species in its natural habitats, fourteen ISSR and 35 SSR primers were used to score variability amongst the ten native populations across the state of Tripure, India. PCR results generated 115 distinguishable ISSR bands, of which 99 bands (86.1%) were polymorphic. On the other hand, the 35 SSR markers yielded 79 scorable bands, of which 52 were polymorphic, depicting polymorphic percentage of 65.82%. POPGENE analysis reveals Nei’s gene diversity (h) to be 0.28 and 0.23 for the ISSR and SSR, respectively. The UPGMA Dendrogram analysis revealed a different clustering pattern, implicating intra-specific diversity. The study underpinns that ISSR markers are more suitable for determining genetic polymorphism among populations of the instant taxa. Presence of reasonable diversity occurring amongst various populations of Aquilaria malaccensis, necessitates for undertaking conservation measures for each population of this highly esteemed plant species. This article aligns with SDG-15 (Life on Land) of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development.