ENZYME POLYMORPHISM ANALYSES IN 3 ENDANGERED SPECIES OF HIMALAYAN POPPY, MECONOPSIS (PAPAVERACEAE) - GENETIC HOMOGENEITY IN THE ENDANGERED HIMALAYAN, POPPY, MECONOPSIS

Populations of Meconopsis paniculata and M. sinuata inhabit open alpin e slopes, while those of M. simplicifolia are restricted to alpine mea dows of Sikkim Himalaya. These species are threatened and represented by very small populations. Three enzymes namely acid phosphatase, este rase, and glutamate dehydrogenase were tested for six populations each of M. paniculata and M. simplicifolia and single population of M. sin uata to analyse the genetic diversity of these species. In addition, a lkaline phosphatases, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and malate deh ydrogenase were tested for M. paniculata populations. The results on t he electrophoretic variations revealed that genetic polymorphism is lo w to absent in all the populations of the three species of Meconopsis investigated, and the species are characterized by genetic homogeneity with fixed alleles.