Assessment of Genetic Diversity in the Populations of Hypericum perforatum L. Using AFLP Markers

Background: Hypericum perforatum is one of the valuable medicinal plants in Iran that is used in treating human diseases likes mania, anxiety and depression. Objective : Iranian H. perforatum populations were gathered from deferent region of Iran and also their genetic diversity in company with the possible relationship between genetic diversity and geographical distribution were studied. Methodes: DNA was isolated by CTAB method from young leaves and double digested by EcoRI and Tru1I enzymes. Polymorphic DNA markers generated by DNA fingerprinting technique AFLP (Vos method) using 12 primers combinations. DNA fragments detected with silver nitrate staining according to Basam protocol. Results: Totally 235 bands were scored, that 97% of them were polymorphic. The PIC values ranged between 0.31 and 0.45 with mean of 0.38. The highest and the lowest levels of genetic similarity were 0.89 and 0.29, respectively. Cluster analysis using UPGMA method and DICE similarity coefficient indicated a high genetic diversity among H. perforatum populations. There was no relationship between genetic diversity and geographical distribution. Also for the all loci, the PC1 and PC2 explained 12.8% and 8.3% of the variation, respectively. Conclusion: Wide genetic diversity between Iranian H. perforatum pupulations provide applied information to performance of breeding programs and genetic resource management. Of course, investigation of amount of hypericin and hyperforin metabolites in these populations are requiring to selection paramount genotypes.