Genetic variation among Iranian genotypes of Malva (Malva neglecta) using Start codon targeted (SCoT)

Malva is one of the well-known medicinal and aromatic plants. The juice is one of the oldest herbs that is widely used in medicine. DNA extraction was carried out using CTAB method for 19 genotypes of different regions of Iran. Using SCoT molecular markers, genetic diversity was investigated. The SCoT marker showed favorable polymorphism among genotypes and most primers were suitable for this species. SCoT primers were able to produce 83 strips in total, with 76 multidimensional bands. The average number of bars produced by each primer for 19 genotypes was 4.36, with SC36, SC11 and SC5 primers having the highest number of bands (8), and the SC26 and SC15 primers showed the least number of bands (3). The results showed that the most similarities were genotypes G18 and G19 and the least similarity was genotypes G15 with G3 genotype. The cluster analysis showed that the genotypes were classified into three groups and genetic variation was not consistent with geographical variation. The results of cluster analysis were grouped using molecular variance analysis (AMOVA).