Genetic diversity of Satureja bachtiarica Bunge species collected from north-west Iran

Sustained availability of genetic resources is essential for successful plant breeding. Satureja bachtiarica Bunge is an endemic species to Iran, widely dispersed throughout the country. The rocky mountainous terrain between Asalem and Khalkhal, situated in the Ardabil province, is one of them. The current research focused on the genetic classification of 11 different ecotypes of S. bachtiarica collected from northwest Iran using RAPD molecular markers. A significant genetic diversity was observed among the ecotypes, with 64 bands displaying substantial polymorphism. These polymorphic bands served as the foundation for genetic analyses conducted using NTYSYS-pc (2.02e) software. The genetic distance between the ecotypes was determined using the Dice similarity coefficient. Subsequently, a dendrogram was constructed based on the similarity matrix data, employing the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA). Genetic clustering analysis of the molecular marker data from 11 studied ecotypes revealed the lowest genetic similarity among the Khoy and Ardabil ecotypes. In contrast, the Khalkhal and Meshgin Shahr ecotypes exhibited the highest similarity. After examining the dendrogram, it becomes clear that most clusters consist of ecotypes sharing entirely similar or relatively similar climatic conditions. This suggests that the molecular diversity outcomes align with the geographical diversity of the ecotypes.