HIGH LEVELS OF GENETIC VARIATION AS DETECTED BY AFLP IN Sideritis tmolea FROM WESTERN TURKEY

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of genetic diversity among 29 S. tmolea genotypes collected from Bozdag, Turkey, using the Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) technique. A total of 392 AFLP markers were detected using 14 primer combinations. The number of polymorphic bands per AFLP primer combination ranged from 16 to 42, with an average of 28. The Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) values varied from 0.25 (M-CTC/E-AGC) to 0.72 (M-CAC/E-AAG) among 14 selective primers. The genetic dissimilarity that was detected using the NTSYS-PC software ranged from 0.09 to 0.82. According to the dissimilarity results, a high level of genetic diversity existed among the studied genotypes. A model-based structural analysis revealed the presence of 2 populations. The defined population structure was helpful when studying the S. tmolea genotypes for diversity and classification.