Investigating Phylogenetic Relationships in Iranian Docke Ecotypes (Rumex spp.) using ISSR Markers, Morphological Features, and their Stomata Structure

Rumex spp. is one of the most valuable medicinal plants. This genus has about 200 species scattered in most parts of the world. Iran is considered as one of the distribution points of this plant, 23 species of this genus have been reported in different regions of Iran. The genetic diversity among 10 accessions of Rumex spp., was analyzed in this paper using ISSR markers. PCR analysis was performed on genomic DNA using 15 ISSR primers. ISSR primers were screened and yielded to the total of 174 amplified products, 146 bands (85.31%) of which were polymorphic. The results showed that polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.50. UBC826 primer had the highest PIC value of 0.50 and P7 primer had the lowest PIC value of 0.28. Also, the Rp values were 13.6, 12.4 and 12.2 for UBC833, IS12 and UBC810 primers, respectively. Cluster analysis based on Jacquard’s similarity coefficient using Unweight Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean (UPGMA) indicated wide range of diversity across the studied accessions. Cluster analysis at distance of about 0.47 for ecotypes divided in 3 main groups. These results showed that great diversities exist in both of genetic and stomata structure in the ecotypes. Therefore, the possibility of using molecular data for varietal identification is a promising tool for applying in future breeding programs in the genus Rumex.