Evaluation of genetic diversity in several populations of medicinal plant Nowruzak (Salvia leriifolia) using ISSR markers

Nowruzak (Salvia leriifolia) is a dicotyledonous and perennial plant from Lamiaceae family، which is grown in Khorasan and Semnan provinces of Iran. About 56 percent oil in kernel، essence، and secondary metabolites in its roots and shoots، and its qualitative forage make it suitable as a potential oil seed، medicinal and forage crop. This study was conducted to investigate genetic diversity of 44 genotypes taken from 10 populations of Nowruzak from Khorasan Razavi، South Khorasan and Semnan provinces. We used 13 Primers of Inter Simple Sequence Repeat markers، of which 6 primers were selected as the best primers. The most polymorphic alleles and PIC created by UBC834 with formula (AG) 8YT. Results showed that there was high genetic diversity within and between the studied plant populations. According to the results of grouping of the populations، they were classified in separate groups. However، ISSR markers could reveal differences between the populations، but the results of cluster analysis of the different populations illustrated that the genetic distances between the populations of Nowruzak were not matched with their geographic distances.