Phylogenetic Proximity among Twenty Accessions of Dendrocalamus strictus Unfolded by Protein Profiling and Culm Sheath Descriptors

The wide distribution and adaptability of D. strictus encompasses great diversity which is expected to be reflected in its genetic constitution, hence identification and characterization of its genetic resources assumes great significance. The present work was carried to assess diversity in D. strictus germplasm through Culm sheath characteristics and Protein profiling. Euclidean method linkage ward cluster was carried on culm sheath descriptors. Three clusters were obtained with first cluster further segregating into two sub clusters, with sub cluster I comprising A1, A20 whereas sub cluster II including A5, A10, A40, A38, A19, A8, A36, A7, A11, A88 and A13. The second cluster comprised of accession A16, A23, A17, 18, A28, A32, underlining a fair degree of phylogenetic relatedness. A35, an outlier in the dendrogram parted separately, featuring an apparent remoteness from rest of the accessions. Cluster analysis for protein profiling of the D. strictus genotypes employing UPGMA analysis led to segregation of twenty accessions and their ultimate grouping into four clusters which were further subdivided into subclusters. From Jaccards similarity coefficient, the accessions in cluster I showed high genetic similarity. Cluster IV contained singular accession A36 (Hoshiarpur II) which was found to be genetically divergent from the rest of the accessions. Genetic diversity ranged from 89% (0.89) to 11% (0.11) representing a broad base which warrants further documentation, characterization and conservation for D. strictus improvement.