Evaluation of genetic diversity and Gene-Pool of Pistacia khinjuk Stocks Based On Retrotransposon-Based Markers

Pistachio genetic variety includes a wide range of female variations and male genotypes, and Iran is regarded as one of the critical sites for this diversity in the world. The genus Pistacia consists of eleven species that only have edible nuts and are commercially important. Four important species of pistachios include Pistacia vera, P. khinjuk Stocks, P. eurycarpa Yalt. (P. atlantica subsp. Kurdica Zoh.), and P. atlantica Dsef are found in Iran. Genetic diversity is one aspect of biological diversity that is extremely important for conservation strategies, especially in rare and narrowly endemic species. In Iran, there is no knowledge concerning the genomic organization of the population, genetic diversity, or phenotypic variations of the species. Pistacia khinjuk has eight distinct regional populations, all of which were studied for genetic variation and demographic organization because of the species’ therapeutic value. For this reason, we employed six inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) indicators and 15 mixed IRAP indicators to highlight genomic variation in this plant both within and across populations in this study. It was discovered that 73% of overall genomic variability was related to within-population variety and 27% was attributable to inter-population genomic divergence using the AMOVA test among the examined populations (PhiPT = 0.49, P = 0.010). It was discovered by the Mantel analysis that there was a substantial positive association between genomic isolation and geographic distance among the tested populations.  STRUCTURE analyses and population assignment tests revealed some degree of gene flow among these populations. There was consistency between the MDS plots of communities and the NJ grouping of molecular information. Based on (IRAP) indicators, these findings demonstrated that regional communities of the plant Pistacia khinjuk are well distinct.