Genetic Diversity Assessment Between Different Populations of Moringa peregrina (Forssk.) Fiori and Moringa oleifera Lam. in Iran using RAPD, ISSR and R-ISSR Markers.

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate genetic diversity between and within of six populations with different individual numbers of cultivated and non-cultivated provenances of <em>Moringa peregrina</em> (Forssk.) Fiori and <em>Moringa oleifera</em> Lam. using RAPD, ISSR and various combinations of RAPD and ISSR primers in one multiplex PCR (R-ISSR). 10 primers that produced clear and reproducible fragments after screening of 30 primers were selected for further analysis. A set of 10 primers generated 96 bands ranging in size from 150 to 1600 bp, corresponding to an average of 16 bands per primer and out of which 100 % were polymorphic among 26 individuals. The <em>PIC</em> values ranged from 0.16 to 0.31 and <em>MI</em> values ranged from 2.16 to 4.65 per primer. The primer R-ISSR (H876+A17) had the highest <em>PIC</em> (0.31) and <em>MI </em>(4.65) values. A maximum and minimum genetic similarity values were observed between populations (I and V) in <em>M. oleifera</em> (0.98) and populations (III and IV) in <em>M. peregrina</em> (0.52) respectively. The <em>Gst</em> value was 0.7, indicating that 61% of the genetic diversity resided within the populations. Clustering analysis using average algorithm based on Nei's unbiased genetic distance, classified the <em>Moringa</em> Adans. populations into five major groups. The PCOA data confirmed the results of clustering. The results of this study revealed that R-ISSR markers could be efficiently used for genetic differentiation of the <em>Moringa</em> individuals. The primers used in this article are useful to detection of a high level of polymorphism and it can be used to guide future breeding studies and management of <em>Moringa</em> genus.