Molecular identification and genetic relationships among Alcea (Malvaceae) species by ISSR Markers: A high value medicinal plant

Abstract

Alcea L. is one of the largest genera of Malvaceae family with nearly 70 species worldwide mainly distributed in SW Asia. According to the latest revision of the family, it is represented by 34 species in the Flora of Iran, among them, 15 species are endemic. It is tough to accurate germplasm/ plant recognition by using morphological characteristics because of its propagation, growing and using. We conducted a molecular data analysis on these plant species due to their importance. We examined 156 plants from 14 species in 16 regions that were selected randomly for this investigation. It has been 119 polymorphic bands (94.33%) were resulted from 128 bands of 10 primers in amplification of genomic DNA. ISSR primers have a great capacity to detect polymorphic loci among Alcea species, as evidenced by the high average PIC and MI values found. The genetic similarity of 14 species was calculated and ranged between 0.635 to 0.990. Inter-Simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers research revealed that Alcea tarica Pakravan & Ghahreman and Alcea kopetdaghensis lljin had the least similarity, while Alcea semnanica Pakravan and Alcea mazandaranica Pakravan & Ghahreman had the most. The current study attempts to answer three questions: 1) can ISSR markers identify Alcea species? 2) what is the genetic structure of these taxa in Iran? and 3) what is the inter-relationship between these taxa? The current study discovered that ISSR markers can be used to identify species.