Genetic Diversity Assessment Between Different Populations of Moringa peregrina (Forssk.) Fiori and Moringa oleifera Lam. in Iran using RAPD, ISSR and R-ISSR Markers.

The present study was conducted to investigate genetic diversity between and within of six populations with different individual numbers of cultivated and non-cultivated provenances of  Moringa peregrina (Forssk.) Fiori and Moringa oleifera Lam. using RAPD, ISSR and various combinations of RAPD and ISSR primers in one multiplex PCR (R-ISSR). 10 primers that produced clear and reproducible fragments after screening of 30 primers were selected for further analysis. A set of 10 primers generated 96 bands ranging in size from 150 to 1600 bp, corresponding to an average of 16 bands per primer and out of which 100 % were polymorphic among 26 individuals.  The PIC values ranged from 0.16 to 0.31 and MI values ranged from 2.16 to 4.65 per primer. The primer R-ISSR (H876+A17) had the highest PIC (0.31) and MI (4.65) values. A maximum and minimum genetic similarity values were observed between populations (I and V) in M. oleifera (0.98) and populations (III and IV) in M. peregrina (0.52) respectively. The Gst value was 0.7, indicating that 61% of the genetic diversity resided within the populations. Clustering analysis using average algorithm based on Nei's unbiased genetic distance, classified the Moringa Adans. populations into five major groups. The PCOA data confirmed the results of clustering. The results of this study revealed that R-ISSR markers could be efficiently used for genetic differentiation of the Moringa individuals. The primers used in this article are useful to detection of a high level of polymorphism and it can be used to guide future breeding studies and management of Moringa genus.