Study of phylogenetic relationships of different species of Satureja spp. based nuclear ITS region and chloroplast matK gene.

Phylogenetic study of savory (Satureja spp.), which has different species and valuablecompounds such as thymol and carvacrol, is of special importance among medicinal plants. In this study, 21 accessions belonged to nine Satureja species were identified and collected from main habitats in eight provinces of Iran, including East Azarbaijan, Kurdistan, Gilan, North Khorasan, Yazd, Lorestan, Ilam, and Kermanshah. Genomic DNA extraction was performed using the modified CTAB method. In the phylogenetic study, in addition to the nine collected species, the sequences of ITS and matK genes of Satureja species registered with the NCBI were also added to the phylogeny tree as part of the group. In addition to Satureja genus, the sequences of Thymus, Ziziphora, Clinopodium genera were also used NCBI as an outgroup to root the phylogenetic tree. The results showed that in the study of Satureja. spp kinship relationships, the ITS nuclear gene was more appropriate than the matK chloroplast gene. In the native species of Iran, the maximum genetic distance was between S.mutica and S.atropatana and the minimum genetic distance was between S.rechingeri and S.khuzistanica. In the phylogenetic tree, five species of S.macrantha, S.atropatana, S.sahendica, S.edmondi, and S.bachtiarica with %100 bootstrap value, two species of S.mutica and S.spicigera with %96 bootstrap value, and two species of S.khuzistanica and S.rechingeri with %100 bootstrap value were close relatives. The results showed a significant consistency with Flora Iran and Flora Iranica in terms of morphological traits.