APPLICATION OF RANDOM AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA (RAPD) ANALYSIS TO DETECT THE GENOTOXIC EFFECT OF MERCURY (HG) HEAVY METAL STRESS ON MENTHA ARVENVSIS SEEDLINGS

At present, several plant species have been used as bioindicators, and recent advances in molecular biology have led to the development of a number of molecular marker assays for DNA variation analysis in ecogenotoxicology. In the present study, Menthaarvenvsis seedlings were used as bioindicator of mercury (Hg) pollution in the range of 0, 10, 20 and 40mg/l. Mercury iron treated seedlings showed changes in plant growth, total protein content and DNA profiles. It is observed that the decline in shoot length ranged from 28 % to 37% was noticed in Hg treated seedlings compared to the control. The changes occurring in randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) banding patterns following Hg treatment showed variation in band intensity, loss of bands and appearance of new bands compared with the normal seedlings.Genomic template stability (GTS) test performed for the qualitative measurement of changes in RAPD profiles, showed significant effect at the given concentration of mercury. Thus, DNA polymorphisms detected by RAPD analysis could be used as an investigation tool for environmental toxicology and as a useful biomarker assay for the detection of genotoxic effects of Hg pollution on plants.