ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC RELATEDNESS AMONG SELECTED CULTIVARS OF OPIUM POPPY (PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM L.) THROUGH DNA PROFILING

Papaver somniferum L. (2n=22) belonging to the family Papaveraceae, is an annual herb cultivated extensively in many countries. P. somniferum is the only species of poppy used to produce opium, and it is believed to have evolved through centuries of breeding and cultivation from the wild Mediterranean strain P. setigerum. The dried juice (latex) from the unripe green capsule is a rich source of alkaloids, including morphine.
Beside medicinal uses, the food value of opium poppy underlies in highly nutritious seeds that are rich in proteins, minerals and edible oil.
Selected cultivars of P. somniferum such as ‘Sanchita’, ‘Sampada’, ‘Shyama’, ‘Shweta’ and ‘Sujata’ developed by CIMAP for different traits were studied for the genetic relatedness among themselves using RAPD analysis.
All the five cultivars were observed to be within the similarity range of 85 to 100%. However, all these cultivars are distinct at morpho-chemical level and have been released for unique characters.
The cultivar ‘Shweta’ could be differentiated from rest of the cultivars with primer MAP 2, similarly the cultivar ‘Shyama’ could be differentiated with the help of primer MAP 8. Since cultivars ‘Sampada’ and ‘Sujata’ could not be differentiated using random decamer primers, they were subjected to AFLP analysis with 9 primer pairs resulting in differentiation of these high and low latex yielding cultivars, respectively.

International Symposium on Papaver

M.P. Darokar, S.S. Dhawan, A.K. Shukla, S.T. Thul, R.K. Lal, A.K. Shasany, S.P.S. Khanuja

DNA fingerprinting, genetic diversity, RAPD, AFLP, poppy cultivars

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1036.2