RAPD profiling in detecting genetic variation in Stellaria L. (Caryophyllaceae)

Abstract

Stellaria species are common herbs, preferred humid mountainously slopes, but some grew in desert. Main center of diversification for Stellaria is Eurasia, with a center of distribution in the mountains of central Asia. Some species are also cosmopolitan. It is represented by 9 species in Iran. The genus has high medicinal value. To determine the genetic diversity and understand the species? limits within the Iranian Stellaria, we produced molecular data using 139 randomly collected plants representing 8 species from five provinces of Iran. A total of 122 reproducible bands were generated by 10 of 25 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers, with an average of 12.2 bands/primer and 33% polymorphism. Largest number of effective alleles (Ne), genetic diversity (H), and Shannon Index (I) were shown by S. media. Our data depicted highest similarity between S. media and S. pallida and lowest between S. media and S. graminea. S. pallida showed relatively low level of genetic variation. Finally, the Neighbor Joining (NJ) trees based on RAPD markers data divided the populations into two different clusters, indicating their genetic difference which is discussed in details.