An Assessment of the Genetic Diversity of Imperial Crown (Fritillaria imperialis L.) Populations from Zagross Region of Iran through ISSR Markers and Morphological Traits

To evaluate the genetic diversity of native populations of Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis L.) in Zagross region, ISSR molecular along with 32 morphological traits were employed. A number of 160 samples corresponding to eight Zagross populations distributed in six provinces were collected and assessed. Using six primers, 57 bands were totally produced from which 49 were polymorphic. Mean percentage of polymorphism was 85.6% and mean number of polymorphic bands per assay unit was equal to 8.17%. Mean Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) was 0.31. In dendrogram produced as based on Jacard Similarity Coefficients and UPGMA grouping method, all the populations were organized into distinct clusters denoting efficiency of the employed primers in production of suitable fragments along the genome. Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) and its partitioning among and within populations were analyzed for eight populations of F.imperialis either with or without regional structures. Variations among and within populations were 44.05% and 55.95% of the total variations, respectively. Regional grouping couldnt cover any part of total variance. Morphological dendrogram didn’t show an obvious pattern regarding a distinction of populations from each other. Correlation between morphological and molecular similarity matrixes wasn’t observed as significant (r= 0.25).