Biologia. Volume 70, Issue 4, Pages 453–459

Majid Talebi¹ / Mehdi Rahimmalek² / Mohsen Norouzi¹

Abstract:

Thymus daenensis subsp. daenensis is an aromatic medicinal plant endemic to Iran and generally grows in high altitudes in Zagros Mountains range. Molecular markers provide valuable information about relative genetic relationships for facilitate breeding programs. Here, we used SRAP markers to estimate the genetic diversity of 79 T. daenensis accessions from 16 regions in Iran, located at extremes and the central regions of the Zagros range. Fourteen SRAP primer combinations (PCs) amplified 240 stable and reproducible fragments, of which 198 (82.5%) were polymorphic for all accessions. The PIC value for PCs ranged from 0.195 to 0.333 with an average of 0.284. Neighbor-joining tree constructed from Dice’s similarity matrix of SRAP data revealed two major groups and verified with the results of AMOVA (P < 0.001; genetic distance = 0.98). The Tc and Te groups included the accessions collected from the center and the extremes of the Zagros Mountains, respectively. The results showed that the current scattered distribution area of Iranian thyme is probably recent due mainly to anthropic pressures and limited gene flow via seed and/or pollen dispersal.