Evaluation of genetic diversity in Iranian Calligonum L. species using RAPD markers

Calligonum species are distributed in centeral Asia desert and are effective to stabilize sand dunes. RAPD is a useful genetical marker to determine polymorphism and relationship among plant species. In order to evaluate Genetic diversity within and between species of Calligonum was evaluated using 15 RAPD primers in 26 samples of 11 species collected from different parts of Iran. According to diversity indices, Dice similarity, cluster analysis and band information a total of 191 bands was amplified and 94% of the bands were polymorphic. Cluster analysis revealed a high amount of diversity among the samples. The most similar samples with 0.81 similarity was found within C. bungei species, while the least similarity (0.45) obtained in samples from other different species. All samples clustered in four groups, samples of C. polygonoides and C. leucocladum located in two groups separately. However, other species distributed in two other groups. There was low relationship between genetic divergence and geographical origins that could be because of seed migration between the locations by wind and human.