DIVERSIFICATION IN LASIA SPINOSA (LOUR.) THWAITES TWO MORPHOTYPES EXISTING WITHIN ASSAM BASED ON MORPHO METRIC AND ISSR MARKER ANALYSIS

Abstract

Lasia spinosa or Unicorn plant is an important tropical spinous rhizomatous herb. This plant is one of the native species of Assam used as vegetable and in Ayurvedic medicines. There are two distinct morphological types of Lasia spinosa: Morphotype-I i.e.having dissected laminal and hastate form and Morphotype-II i.e. dissected laminal form. The current study revealed that the physical and anatomical parameters assent with the genetic diversity revealed through molecular data analysis. The vein type, however, was discovered to be jumbled craspedodromous and semi-craspedodromous of Lasia spinosa morphotypes (I, II), respectively. Least variance was discovered in the morphological forms observing the leaf vein architecture. There are small changes in the petioles' and roots' internal architecture between the two morphotypes. To do a phylogenetic analysis between the two morphotypes of Lasia spinosa, the ISSR-PCR product revealed approximately 56% of polymorphisms (i.e32 out of 57 bands which are distinct to each other).