Genetic diversity among fennel (Fueniculum vulgare Mill.) accessions using morphological and SCoT markers

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) is one of the well-known medicinal and aromatic plants. To determine variability between 16 Iranian fennel accessions based on a molecular marker and morphological traits an experiment was carried out based on a completely randomized design with three replications at Payame Noor University of Kermanshah, Iran, during 2014. Eleven morphological traits were recorded. Genotypes were evaluated based on 10 SCoT primer markers as well. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among the genotypes for the studied characters. Mean comparison according to DMRT was carried out and significant differences were revealed for all of the studied traits (p≤0.05). Cluster analyses classified the accessions into four groups. Principle components analysis revealed that 81.4 percent of variance explained by four PCAs. The strongest heritability (%71.37) belonged to main stem. SCot primers showed 55 visible bands. SC5 and SC29 primers had the most number of bands with 10 and 9 bands respectively. Means of polymorphic information content (PIC=0.36), marker index (MI= 1.82), effective multiplex ratio (EMR= 4.8) and resolving power (RP= 5.86) indices were calculated for all primers. Total genetic similarity based on the primers was 0.66 percent. Cluster analysis classified the accessions into 3 groups.The clustering results was confirmed by principal coordinate analysis.