Genetic diversity and classification of populations from different species of Prangos spp. using multivariate analysis methods

The Prangos genus is a medicinal plant belonging to the Apiaceae family, of which 15 species are found in Iran. The morphological traits at the flowering stage were studied to study the genetic diversity among 80 populations belonging to seven species P. hausslmechtii, P. lophoptera, P. corymbosa, P. uloptera, P. acaulis, P. platychloena and P. ferulacea from six provinces Lorestan, Esfahan, Fars, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh & Buyer-Ahmad, and Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari. For this purpose, 10 plant samples were selected from each habitat and 22 quantitative traits were evaluated. Statistical parameters were calculated for the studied traits and coefficients of phenotypic variation were also determined as a measure of genetic diversity. The results of this study showed significant genetic variation within and between species. The results of ANOVA showed that the populations had significant differences in some of the studied traits (P<0.01), indicating high genetic variation among the populations. The highest coefficient of variance was observed for the number of lateral branches, number of umbels per plant, number of umbels per the main stem, the diameter of umbels per the main stem, leaves needle size, leaf width, main stem diameter, and lateral branches diameter, indicating high variability in the traits studied. Correlation coefficients between traits were different in the studied species and related to their genomic structure. In the principal component analysis, the first nine components explained 79.98% of the total variation in the evaluated traits. Based on cluster analysis, 80 populations were divided into four groups. The dendrogram obtained from cluster analysis revealed that morphological traits studied could differentiate some species from each other. Overall, the results of this research showed that there was a high level of genetic diversity in different species of Prangos spp.