Phylogenetic Relationship of Some Species of Genus Junonia Butterfly Using RAPD

The present investigation was carried out to find out similarities and diversities between four species of the genus Junonia belonging to Nymphalidae, the largest family of butterflies. The genomic DNA eluded from the species, J. lemonias, J. alamana, J. hierta and J. orithiya were screened by nine universal primers OPA-1, OPA-2, OPA-3, OPA-4, OPA-5, OPP-9, OPP-18, OPN-17, OPN-16 through RAPD - PCR. Primer OPN-17 did not produce any bands, whereas, the discrete banding pattern was observed in the remaining 8 primers. Primer OPP-18 distinctly highlights only species-specific bands ranging below 200 base pairs. Primer OPA-2 that produced significant banding patterns was taken into consideration for further analysis. The dendrogram was constructed by using binary data interpreted from the RAPD gel image. Two clades were obtained, where in one clade taxa J. hierta and J. lemonias cluster as sister taxa, and in the other clade taxa J. alamana and J. orithiya cluster as sister taxa. The investigation was supported by the Jaccard similarity and distance indices matrix and Principal component analysis. The interpretation from obtained dendrogram and distance matrix reveals that there is closeness within two species in their genetic makeup, whereas some genetic characters are expressed as species-specific. Henceforth, these patterns produced by respective primers can be considered as diagnostic bands and may contribute to molecular markers for Junonia species identification. Thus, in related evolutionary studies whenever be under investigation these markers will play a pivotal role in concluding the direction of evolution.