A Study of Genetic Variation within and between Ecotypes of Distaff Thistle (Carthamus lanatus) from North East Iran

The information of the genetic diversity of weed community helps researchers to find more effective biological control methods. In the present study the genetic diversity within and between populations of distaff thistle (Carthamus lanatus) was investigated using 24 ISSR markers. The populations were collected from eight different regions of Golestan province. Using 9 polymorphic (26.4 %) ISSR markers, the mean coefficient of similarity between individuals based on Jaccard, and descriptive parameters such as Nei’s gene diversity, Shannon's information index, percentage of polymorphic loci, observed number of alleles (na) and effective number of alleles (ne) were calculated for each population. The highest genetic similarity coefficient was observed in the ecotypes collected around Gomishan and the lowest occurred in ecotype Bandartorkman. Analysis of molecular variance showed that the genetic diversity among populations (63 percent) was higher than genetic variation between populations (23 percent). The highest values for Nei’s gene diversity, Shannon's information index, percentage of polymorphic loci, observed number of alleles, effective number of alleles was observed in ecotype Bandartorkman and the lowest values of these parameters occurred for ecotypes AshuradehIsland and Inchehbroon. Therefore, ecotype Bandartorkman had the highest, and ecotypes of AshuradehIsland and Inchehbroon the lowest within population genetic diversity.