Investigation of genetic variation within and among two species of Cuminum spp. using AFLP markers

Green cumin (Cuminum cyminum) and white cumin (C. setifolium) are two closely related species from Apiceae family, native of central and southern Asia. In this study, AFLP markers were used to evaluate the genetic variation within and among 15 lines of green cumin and 3 populations of white cumin. 149 bands were scored using 6 primer combinations (EcoRI/MseI) of which 73 (49%) were polymorphic. The largest numbers of polymorphic bands (20 bands) were produced using primer combination EcoRI-AGT / MseI-CCG, and the lowest numbers of polymorphic bands (3 bands) were produced by primer combination EcoRI-ACT / MseI-CGG. Genetic variation (h) within green cumin (0.150) was higher than that of white cumin (0.084). Whereas, genetic variation among the samples (0.229) was higher than that of within samples. UPGMA based dendrogram, completely distinguished these species in genetic distance of 45%. This study revealed that Cuminum genus poses a relatively low level of variation due to its self pollinating nature, and white cumin as a wild type may be used as a new source of genetic variation for interspecific crosses and hybrid production.