GENETIC DIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS FENNEL (FOENICULUM VULGARE MILL.) GERMPLASM IN PAKISTAN ASSESSED BY RAPD MARKERS

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) is an important, well-known aromatic and medicinal herb. Fifty accessions of fennel were collected from different parts of Pakistan and evaluated for important characteristics like seed germination percentage (ger %), days to initiation of flowering, plant height, stem girth, nodal distance, umbel diameter, days to 50% maturity, days to harvesting, seed yield per row, weight of 100 seeds, Harvest index (%). Genomic DNA of the accessions was extracted and subjected to RAPD analysis in order to ascertain their genetic diversity. Twenty-four out of 30 decimer primers generated 145 clear bands and 70 (48%) were polymorphic. Sixteen primers OPA-01 , OPA-03, OPA-04, OPA-05, OPA-07, OPA-10, OPA-11, OPA-14, OPA-15, OPA-18, AC-11, AC-14, AC-15, AC-16, AC-18 and AC-20 gave polymorphism for different characters. About 66.6% of polymorphic primers generated the highest index to resolve genetic diversity even in small number of accessions. Seven accessions from Punjab, 3 from NWFP, one from Balochistan and one from Northern Areas of Pakistan had appeared with promising characters.