Cultivated groundnut or peanut is one of the important legume crops of tropical and semi-arid tropical countries, where it provides a major source of edible oil and vegetable protein. Abiotic stresses directly or indirectly affects the physiological status of an organism by altering its metabolism, growth and development. The objectives of this study were to estimate the genetic diversity between eight groundnut genotypes and to evaluate the effect of Polyethylene glycol (PEG-6000) induced drought stress on germination. The variable responses of groundnut genotypes were characterized using 10 RAPD primers and tested for drought tolerance on different levels of osmotic potential of -2, -4, -6, -8, -10 and -12 bars of physiological drought initiated by PEG-6000 and the data was recorded on various seedling parameters like germination rate, root length and shoot length. The total numbers of amplification products generated were 52, and among them 34 were found to be polymorphic. Primer OPD-02 generated the maximum number of amplified products with 100% polymorphism. Among all the genotypes there is close relationship between two genotypes Narayani and Dharani and the data revealed that PEG induced drought stress showed general negative effect on seedling morphological characters indicated by root and shoot length. The study indicated the scope and usefulness of RAPD markers for diversity analysis and provided useful data in screening of drought tolerant genotypes using PEG at seedling stage.
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2022: 6.012
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