Genetic Diversity Analysis of Tomato Germplasm via RAPD Markers: A Case Study in Bangladesh

This study aimed to assess the genetic diversity of collected tomato germplasm using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. The relationship between genetic diversity estimates and germplasm collections is important to facilitate effective germplasm collection, evaluation and utilization. RAPD markers are also more effective and efficient than morphological markers in determining recombination variability in genetic diversity assessment. The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of Molecular Horticulture in Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Bangladesh from October to December 2022. Sixteen isolates were amplified three times with eight primers. RAPD fragments were identified by the name of the primer and the size of the amplified bands. Only well-defined fragments were rated as having two alleles (present and absent) of the putative locus. All tomato Varieties were in two distinct clusters, Cluster I consisted of 6 varieties and Cluster II contained the remaining 10 varieties. BARI Tomato-2 and Suraksa were most distinctly related and Ruma-19 and Guli were most closely related.