Study of genetic diversity in several scentless chamomile landraces (Matricaria inodora L.) based on morphological traits and RAPD molecular markers

Chamomile is one of the most important medicinal plants in commerce that has many applications in drug and sanitary industries. In order to evaluate the genetic diversity of different scentless chamomile landraces (Matricaria inodora L.) based on morphological traits and molecular markers, 17 landraces were collected from different areas of Iran. In order to evaluate the morphological traits, the landraces were planted in an augmented design in Fozveh station of Agriculture Research Center of Isfahan. Forty-four arbitrary 10, 15 and 18-mer primers were used for PCR amplification of total genomic DNA. Twenty nine primers were selected based on the quality and reliability of their amplification. Genetic similarity between the genotypes was estimated using Jaccard's similarity coefficient and UPGMA method of cluster analysis was conducted on the collected data. Results showed that yield of flower per plant, number of flower per plant, and 1000 grain weight had maximum variance coefficient. Days to end of flowering and Days to flowering had minimum variance coefficient. Genetic similarity coefficient was estimated in a range of 0.20–0.72, with a mean of 0.39. According to the cluster analysis on both morphological and molecular markers, the studied landraces were classified into 5 clusters, but intra-groups landraces were different. Results of cluster analysis showed that genetic diversity was not coordinated to the geographical distribution.