Strong genetic differentiation of the Paracaryum species (Boraginaceae) detected by inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR)

Abstract

Species identification is fundamentally important within the fields of biology, biogeography, ecology and conservation. The genus Paracaryum belongs to tribe Cynoglosseae of the family Boraginaceae is a herbaceous genus including approximately 67 species, mostly distributed in the Irano-Turanian phytogeographical region. In spite vast distribution of many Paracaryum species that grow in different habitats, there are not any available report on their genetic diversity, mode of divergence and patterns of dispersal. Therefore, we performed molecular (ISSR markers) of 98 accessions from 12 species of Paracaryum that were collected from different habitats. A set of 10 ISSR markers was used. The genetic distances were estimated based on Jaccard similarity coefficient and the descriptive statistics of populations for estimation of genetic parameters were also performed. A total of 90 polymorphic bands were obtained. The present study revealed that ISSR data can delimit the species. AMOVA and STRUCTURE analysis revealed that the species of Paracaryum belongs are genetically differentiated but have some degree of shared common alleles.