Phylogenetic Analysis of the Genus Anabaena by Single Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) Fingerprinting

Anbalagan Ezhilarasi* and Narayanaswamy Anand

Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai - 600 025 India.

Corresponding Author E-mail: anbuezhilarasi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: RAPD techniques were used for the detection of genetic heterogeneticity among the axenic culture of fresh water filamentous heterocystous Anabaena spp. Those were morphologically discriminated two groups, each containing five Anabaena species based on the proximity of the akinetes to heterocyst, adjacent to or away from the spore in the trichome. The electrophoretic patterns for 10 Anabaena strains were used for molecular analysis using the RAPD technique. A total of 10 cyanobacterial isolates were selected and mass cultured in BG11 medium. Genomic DNA was extracted from fresh water cyanobacterial isolates and was amplified using primers CRA 22, CRA 23, CRA 25, OPC11, OPA13, and OPA18 and distinct PCR fingerprint were generated. Unique banding patterns were observed from all tested cyanobacterial species and their molecular weights of each band were used to calculate their genetic distance among them. Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was carried out for the phylogenetic characterization of these strains. RAPD fingerprinting results clearly showed the genetic variation among the cyanobacterial isolates.

KEYWORDS: Anabaena; Cyanobacteria; Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD); Phylogeny; Taxonomy

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