USE OF ISSR HYBRID MARKERS TO ASSESS THE GENETIC DIVERSITY IN WILD MEDICINAL ZIZIPHUS NUMMULARIA (BURN. F.) WIGHT & ARN COLLECTED FROM DIFFERENT REGIONS OF IRAN

Ziziphus nummularia (Burn.f.) Wight & Arn. Is a valuable medicinal tree that belongs to the Rhamnaceae family with

a wide distribution in the southern areas of Iran? In this study, 20 populations of Z. nummularia were collected from

the southern areas of Iran to evaluate their characteristics as well as genetic diversity. Twelve ISSR primers produced

polymorphic 101 bands with about 100% polymorphism. The highest polymorphism percentage was seen in

population K16 (51.49) and the lowest was related to population F12 (0.16). The highest and lowest heterozygosity

were observed in populations K16 (0.203) and F12 (0.074), respectively. Genetic parameters such as Shannon index,

Nei's genetic diversity index, and the number of effective alleles for each primer indicated a genetic diversity of 42%

within the populations. In addition, a variation of 58% was observed among the populations. The highest and lowest

percentages of the Shannon index were observed among populations K16 and F12, respectively, confirmed by the

analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). The cluster analysis of molecular data (UPGMA) and morphological traits

allowed well separation of populations and species, where populations were isolated in clusters.

Keywords : Ziziphus nummularia, ISSR markers, diversity,