ISSR and DAMD markers revealed high genetic variability within Flavoparmelia caperata in Western Himalaya (India).

Flavoparmelia caperata (L.) Hale is medicinally very important and possesses antifungal and antibacterial activities. F. caperata is the only species found in India. Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and Directed amplification of minisatellite DNA (DAMD) methods were used to analyze the genetic variability within F. caperata from the Western Himalayan region of India. Eleven ISSR and 10 DAMD primers produced 139 and 117 polymorphic bands, and detected 91.44 and 82.34 % polymorphisms, respectively. Cumulative band data generated for ISSR and DAMD markers resulted in 86.86 % polymorphism across all the accessions of F. caperata. The average Polymorphic information content (PIC) value obtained with ISSR, DAMD, and cumulative band data were 0.28, 0.27, and 0.27, respectively. The clustering of the F. caperata accessions in the UPGMA dendrogram showed that these accessions are intermingled with each other in different subclusters irrespective of their geographical affiliations. The pattern of genetic variations within F. caperata accessions could be due to free exchange of spores that might have taken place among these accessions in the wild. ISSR and DAMD markers efficiently and reliably resulted in discrete banding patterns and polymorphic profiles. These markers despite targeting different regions of genome, revealed almost similar levels of polymorphism across all the accessions. The wide range of genetic distance and high level of polymorphism detected by ISSR and DAMD reflected a high genetic variability among the different accessions of F. caperata.