Genetic variations and interspesific relationships in Lonicera L. (Caprifoliaceae), using SCoT molecular markers

Lonicera L. (Caprifoliaceae) includes more than 200 species worldwide. The genus is mainly distributed in temperate to subtropical regions of the northern hemisphere: Europe, Russia, East Asia and North America. Some species are medicinal plants. Dried Lonicera flowers and buds are known as Flos Lonicera and have been a recognized herb in the traditional Chinese medicine for more than 1500 years. It has been applied for treatment of arthritis, diabetes mellitus, fever, and viral infections. Due to the importance of these plant species, we performed a combination of morphological and molecular data for this species. For this study, we used 85 randomly collected plants from six species in 6 provinces. Amplification of genomic DNA using 10 primers produced 103 bands, of which 95 were polymorphic (90.98%). The obtained high average PIC and MI values revealed high capacity of SCoT primers to detect polymorphic loci among Lonicera species. The genetic similarities of 6 collections were estimated from 0.67 to 0.90. According to the SCoT markers analysis, L. hypoleuca and L. iberica had the lowest similarity and the species of L. korolkowii and L. nummulariifolia had the highest similarity. The aims of present study are: 1) can SCoT markers identify Lonicera species, 2) what is the genetic structure of these taxa in Iran, and 3) to investigate the species inter-relationship? The present study revealed that SCoT markers can identify the species.