Study of Genetic Diversity in Chamomile Landraces (Matricaria aurea (Loefl.) Sch. Bip.) Using Random and Semi-Random Primers

Chamomile is one of the important medicinal plants in commerce that has many applications in drug and sanitary industries. In order to evaluate the genetic diversity of different chamomile landraces (Matricaria aurea (Loefl.) Sch. Bip.) based on random and Semi-random primers, 16 landraces that collected from different areas of Iran were selected. Twenty-two random primers for RAPD marker and Twenty-two semi-random primers from IT (intron-targeting) and ET (exon-targeting) primers with 15-mer and 18- mer were used in this study. Genetic similarity between landraces was estimated using Jaccard's similarity coefficient. Cluster analysis was conducted with UPGMA method using NTSYS-pc ver 2.02 software. The number of polymorphic bands generated by random primers varied from 5-13 and varied from 6-21 for semi-random primers. According to the cluster analysis on both random and semi-random primers, 16 populations were classified into three groups. Based on similarity matrix, Tabriz landrace had minimum similarity with other landraces. Compare between random and semi-random primers showed that semi-random primers had more ability in produce polymorphism.