Population Structure and Genetic Diversity in Delphinium (Ranunculaceae) Using Scot Molecular Markers

Abstract

The tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae) comprises two species-rich genera, Aconitum and Delphinium, the latter including Consolida and Aconitella. The 650–700 species are distributed in Eurasia and North America; three species occur on tropical African mountains. Many species of Delphinieae are of horticultural importance or medical use and a few are well-studied in terms of genetic diversity and floral morphology and pollination. We sampled 19 populations from 19 Delphinium species throughout Iran. Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) primer were applied to calculate measures of genetic diversity at the population level and genetic differentiation. Amplification of genomic DNA using 10 primers produced 165 bands, of which 150 were polymorphic (94.48%). The obtained high average PIC and MI values revealed high capacity of SCoT primers to detect polymorphic loci among Delphinium. The genetic similarities of 19 collections were estimated from 0.62 to 0.96. According to the SCoT markers analysis, D. lorestanicum and D. oliganthum had the lowest similarity and the species of D. hohenackeri and D. ajacis had the highest similarity.