International Journal of Horticulture, 2015, Vol.5, No.21, 1-45
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‘‘DNA barcodes,’’ have been proposed and initiated to facilitate biodiversity studies, identify juveniles, associate
sexes, and enhance forensic analyses. The cytochrome
c
oxidase 1 sequence, which has been found to be widely
applicable in animal barcoding, is not appropriate for most species of plants because of a much slower rate of
cytochrome
c
oxidase 1 gene evolution in higher plants than in animals. Therefore it has been proposed that the
nuclear internal transcribed spacer region and the plastid
trnH-psbA
intergenic spacer as potentially usable DNA
regions for applying barcoding to flowering plants (Paul et al., 2005; Hogg and Hebert, 20034; Kress et al., 2005;
Marshall and Will, 2005; Stoeckle, 2003; Godfray, 2002; Lipscomb et al., 2003). Engineered DNA sequences also
have been suggested as exact identifiers and intellectual property tags for transgenic organisms (Gressel and
Ehrlich, 2002).
1Materialsand Methods
1.1Plant Material
Attempts were made to review the most important works carried out on characterization by different workers on
different ornamental crops. Authors have done extensive work on characterization of different ornamentals
(germplasm and new varieties developed through conventional breeding and induced mutagenesis) at Floriculture
Laboratory, National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow, India (Datta and Banerji, 1995; Datta, 1997;
1998a; 1998b, 2001). They used both classical and molecular methods. Therefore, materials and methods used by
the authors will be highlighted elaborately. This will give the technical details of each technology used for
characterization.
Hippeastrum
(Fam. Amaryllidaceae, popular name Amaryllis) is an excellent bulbous plant bearing beautiful
flowers. It usually flowers from mid-February to April, a period when there is a real scarcity of flowers in the
northern plains of India. Only two species,
Hippeastrum belladonna
and
Hippeastrum gracillis
, formerly grew in
plains at NBRI. A total of three varieties, two (‘‘Snow White’’ and ‘‘Firefly’’) under
H. belladonna
and one
(‘‘Charm’’) under
H. gracillis
, which produce small-sized, bell-shaped flowers with a narrow colour range, are
available on the plains. A large number of Dutch hybrids, both imported and available from different regions of
India, which produce giant size blooms in a much wider range of colours were collected. Using these germplasms
as baseline materials for a hybridisation program, NBRI has successfully developed new varieties through
selective hybridisation and selection of natural hybrids for research purposes. No detailed information is available
on the genetic aspects of the genus, and factors underlying its evolution are unclear. A total of 24 varieties were
selected, of which 16 were Dutch hybrids, 3 were subtropical varieties, and 5 were hybrid varieties developed at
NBRI for research purposes. Details of all varieties are shown in Table 1 and Figure 1.
Table 1
Hippeastrum
cultivars included in RAPD analysis
Sl.
No.
Name of cultivar
Chrom-osome
No.
Origin
Characters
1.
DHRUVA
-
Open pollinated seedling
selection
Flowers are large, flat faced, fully open, red with no
markings, throat green yellow with a prominent star.
2.
PRAKASH
-
Open pollinated seedling
selection
Flowers are large, flat faced, fully
open, attractive red markings present on white back
ground, throat yellowish green.
3.
FIREFLY
2n=22
Basal species
Flowers are small bell shaped, narrow face, reddish
pink, maroon eye, white star present in the center of
the petal.
4.
CHARM
4n=44
Basal species
Flowers medium size, open, carmine red, greenish
white star, pale maroon eye.
5.
PINK PEARL
3n=33
Dutch Hybrid
Flowers
are
large,
flat
faced,
pure pink, darker throat with pale green star.
6.
AGNI
-
Flowers are large, flat faced, fully open, attractive
red without any streaks, throat yellowish green.
