ISSR-PCR fingerprinting of Kappaphycus doty and Eucheuma J. Agardh seaweed varieties from Sabah, Malaysia

• Main Author: Mohd Zarifi Mohamad
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: QK900-989 Plant ecology
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/44189/1/ABSTRACT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/44189/2/FULLTEXT..pdf

Kappaphycus Doty and Eucheuma J. Agardh seaweeds are commonly cultivated for carrageenan production in Malaysia, where more than twenty varieties of Kappaphycus Doty. and Eucheuma J. Agardh seaweeds are cultivated in seaweed farms in Sabah. Identification of the different varieties of Kappaphycus Doty and Eucheuma J. Agardh seaweeds is important because certain seaweed varieties of the same species show desired qualities such as higher carrageenan content, higher growth rate, and resistant to disease. Therefore, the present study aims to characterize KappaphycusDoty and Euch,euma J. Agardh seaweed varieties based on the genetic fingerprinting generated by using inter-simple sequence repeat - polymerase chain reaction (ISSR-PCR) method. ISSR-PCR is a powerful tool in the study of genetic diversity and variation, which involves the use of microsatellite sequences as primers in a PCR to generate highly polymorphic markers. In this study, twelve ISSR primers were screened, where only eight primers wene able to produce distinct and reproducible patterns of polymorphic bands. A total of 1494 bands of 180 to 4600 bp were successfully amplified, of which 94.3% were polymorphic. A dendogram generated using the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Average based on a distance measure of total character difference showed a clear differentiation among the cultivar varieties of Kappaphycus Doty seaweed only, however Eucheum.a J. Agardh seaweed varieties have the same band profiles. Interestingly, 22 identical variety-specific ISSR bands were obtained from 30 seaweed samples tested and this would provide molecular tools for seaweed varieties authentication in future. As a conclusion, ISSR-PCR fingerprint is a powerful method for the identification and molecular classification of KappaphJ/Cus Doty and Eucheuma J. Agardh seaweed varieties. The data obtained from ISSR analysis can be used in breeding technology and various other· applications for development of seaweed industries.