Genetic Diversity and Relatedness Among Six Ranunculus Species Unraveled by SRAP Markers

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of six Ranunculus species using SRAP markers. The genotyping of 73 Ranunculus accessions showed that 12 primer pairs generated a total number of 212 polymorphic fragments with a 99.53 % level of polymorphism. Nei’s gene diversity ranged between 0.2237 and 0.3436 with an average of 0.3001. The UPGMA method with Nei72’s similarity coefficient ranging from 0.23 to 1.11 separated 73 accessions into two distinct groups (A and B). Cluster-A included R. acris members, while cluster-B included the rest of the tested species. Cluster-B was subsequently divided into two sub-groups (I and II). Subgroup-I consisted of R. carpaticus and R. serpens subsp. nemorosus accessions, while subgroup-II included the members of R. platanifolius, R. polyanthemos, and R. repens. R. polyanthemos and R. repens were founded the most closely related species. These findings provide a brand-new understanding of the evolutionary relationships of above mentioned Ranunculus species and may be useful tools for plant breeding and conservation purposes.

Keywords

• Ranunculus
• genetic variation
• genetic resources
• phylogeny
• sequence-related amplified polymorphism marker (SRAP)