Evaluation of genetic diversity in 25 Iranian pistachio genotypes using ISSR markers

In this study 17 ISSR molecular markers were employed to investigate the genetic diversity among 25 female pistachio genotypes. The markers produced 148 bands in total, of which 123 (83%) was polymorphic and the average of polymorphism for each primer was 7.23 band per primer. Cluster analyses of genotypes were estimated based on Jaccard's similarity algorithm and UPGMA clustering method and placed the genotypes in seven groups. The results obtained by similarity matrix revealed the highest similarity between cultivars "Khanjari Damghan" and "Fandoghi 48" (63%) and the lowest similarity between cultivars "Ebrahimi" and "Shasti" (2%) which is due to high amount of polymorphism among the genotypes. This experiment shows that ISSR markers are reliable for assessment of pistachio female genotypes and genetic diversity study. Moreover, these markers can be used to provide molecular genetics identity for Iranian pistachio populations.