Molecular Identification and Genetic Relationships Among Alcea (Malvaceae) species by ISSR Markers: A high value medicinal plant from Irano-Turanian

Abstract

Alcea L. is one of the largest genera of Malvaceae family with nearly 70 species worldwide mainly distributed in SW Asia. According to the latest revision of the family, it is represented by 34 species in the Flora of Iran, among them, 15 species are endemic. Its breeding, cultivation, and utilization are based on proper germplasm/plant identification, which is difficult using morphological features. Therefore, due to the importance of these plant species, we performed a molecular data analysis for this species. For this study, we used 156 randomly collected plants from 14 species in 19 provinces. Amplification of genomic DNA using 10 primers produced 128 bands, of which 119 were polymorphic (94.33%). The obtained high average PIC and MI values revealed high capacity of ISSR primers to detect polymorphic loci among Alcea species. The genetic similarities of 34 collections were estimated from 0.635 to 0.990. According to Inter-Simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers analysis, A. tarica and A. kopetdaghensis had the lowest similarity and the species of A. semnanica and A. mazandaranica had the highest similarity. The aims of present study are: 1) can ISSR markers identify Alcea species, 2) what is the genetic structure of these taxa in Iran, and 3) to investigate the species inter-relationship? The present study revealed that ISSR markers can identify the species.