Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships between and within wild Pistacia species populations and implications for its conservation

Abstract

Although cultivation and utilization of Pistacia are fully exploited, the evolutionary history of the Pistacia genus and the relationships among the species and accessions is still not well understood. The aim of this study was to analyze random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) in a total of 50 accessions of wild pistachio species, which included five populations Pistacia vera, Pistacia khinjuk, Pistacia atlantica, Pistacia mutica, and Pistacia eurycarpa. High levels of genetic diversity were detected within wild pistachio accessions, as revealed by using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averaging and supported via analysis of molecular variance. The objectives of this investigation were to estimate marker indices, polymorphic information contents (PICs), and genetic similarities (GS) for RAPD markers; assess the genetic diversity of Pistacia species, using GS estimated from RAPD fingerprints and molecular characterization; and facilitate the use of markers in inter-specific introgression and cultivar improvement. Out of the 149 polymerase chain reaction fragments that were scored, 146 (97.98 %) were polymorphic. Genetic similarities ranged from 0.3 to 0.86 %, marker indices ranged from 2.98 to 17.74 %, and PICs ranged from 0.80 to 0.99 %. Our results provided great molecular identification of all assayed genotypes, which have shown that there is large quantity of genetic diversity among the pistachio accessions. This finding might render striking information in breeding management strategies for genetic conservation and cultivar development.