Evaluation of genetic diversity in south Khorasan province Agricultural and Natural ‎Resources Research and Education Center Collection jujube genotypes (Ziziphus ‎jujuba Mill.) using SSR and RAPD markers

Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) is cultivated for a long time in Iran, which has medicinal and economic value. In order to effective management of genetic sources, identifying species and determination on the genetic relationships between them, knowledge of genetic diversity will be helpful. To evaluate genetic diversity of 25 trees collected from South Khorasan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center Collection, 16 RAPD and 22 SSR primers were used. Both the markers showed highly polymorphic. Distinctive power of two markers were compared using percent of polymorphism, polymorphic information content (PIC), resolving power (RP), marker index (MI) and effective multiplex ratio (EMR). RAPDs produced 108 polymorphic bands, while SSRs amplified 118 polymorphic bands. SSRs showed higher PIC, EMR and MI (0.47, 5.36, 2.58, respectively) than RAPDs (0.19, 3.55, 0.76, respectively). However, RP of RAPDs (9.92) higher than to SSRs (2.10). The dendrogram drawn with UPGMA cluster analysis showed that root-suckers of the same rootstock were separated from each other, which is indicative of the occurrence of somatic mutation among them. Dendrogram derived from the combination of SSR and RAPD datas, divided most of root-suckers from the same rootstock into same clusters.