Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Niger Plant (Guizotia abyssinica L.) in Moiben Sub County, Kenya, Using Inter Simple Sequence Repeat Markers

Abstract

Niger plant (Guizotia abyssinica), exhibits phenotypic plasticity in different environments. There is need to assess its genetic diversity since guizotia species has a high number of species which may be confused amongst themselves. To achieve this, inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to estimate genetic diversity among 12 wild populations of Niger plant from Moiben sub-county. Total genomic DNA was extracted as per the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (Ctab) method and subjected to ISSR analysis using 20 primers. None of the primers produced unique banding patterns. ISSR data were used to calculate a squared-euclidean distance matrix. All the twenty primers (100%) gave polymorphic bands thus they were all considered for further analysis. The allele frequency of all the primers was below 0.95 indicating that they were all polymorphic in character. Gene diversity was high ranging from 0.3550 to 0.7337 with a mean value of 0.6302. The ISSR based upgma clustering produced four clusters. Niger plant within Moiben sub-county was found to be genetically diverse though heterozygosity was not noticed. The study recommends further analysis of Niger plant so as to form a basis for further development of the plant.