Ficus Species Genetic Diversity Based on Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) Region Analysis

Ficus species (Moraceae) is a globally distributed species and considered one of the largest and most diverse genera of woody plants with growing genetic, environmental, economic, nutritional, and medicinal importance. This study was conducted to detect the genetic and evolutionary relationships among eight species of the genus Ficus (Ficus microcarpa var nitida, F. retusa, F. benjamina Vivian, F. benjamina Starlight, F. cyathistipula, F. elastica Decora and F. binnendijkii, and F. religiosa), by ITS1 and ITS4 primer, the DNA genetic analysis was performed. The eight Ficus species traits ITS phylogenetic analyses indicated that all species were separated into two main clusters containing four groups with identity ranging from 94-100%. The eight Ficus species relationships were estimated by a neighbor-joining (NJ) cluster analysis of genetic similarity matrices. The highest similarity was found between F. benjamina Vivian (Acc.no. MW301203), F. binnendijkii (Acc.no. MW301207), and between Ficus microcarpa var nitida (Acc.no. MW301202) and F. retusa (Acc.no. MW301205), gave the lower similarity index based on the analysis of the morphological features, and the lowest similarity was between F. religiosa (Acc.no. MW301209) and F. cyathistipula (Acc.no. MW301206).