Population genetic structure and genetic diversity study in Lallemantia royleana (Benth.) Benth.: identification of potential gene pool in Iran

Lallemantia royleana (Benth.) Benth. (Family Lamiaceae), is one of the most popular medicinal plants in Iran. It is an herbaceous pant that is commonly known as “Lady mantle”. The vernacular name of Lallemantia royleana's seed is Balangu or Balangu Shirazi that is used as a source of medicine. Medicinal plants are very important from economic point of view in Iran and several large industries are focused on medicinal plants cultivation, extraction and export. Therefore, providing data on the biology of these plants is important for the country. Lallemantia royleana grows in different parts of Iran and forms several local populations. Genetic, morphological and biochemical divergence of geographical populations are well known in plant species. We have no report on population genetic structure, genetic fragmentation, local adaptation and gen flow of Lallemantia royleana populations in the country. Therefore, the present population genetics investigation was programmed to produce data on above said questions. Randomly collected plants of 7 geographical regions were studied by ISSR molecular markers. AMOVA and Hickory test revealed significant genetic differentiation among these populations. They showed isolation by distance phenomenon and therefore, gene flow occurred between close-by located populations. STRUCTURE analysis identified two potential gene pools for Lallemantia royleana in IRAN. Some degree of gene flow and genetic admixture was identified by population assignment test. These information can be used in hybridization and gene conservation of this medicinal plant in Iran

Biosystematic study of the genus Lallemantia (Lamiaceae) : species delimitation and relationship

Lallemantia (Lamiaceae) is a small genus with 5 species. In general, little biosystematics and molecular study has been performed on the genus Lallemantia. Moreover, the studies used only some of the species; none of them has considered all 5 species as a whole in one specific approach. Therefore, the species inter-relationship or nexus in the genus is not thoroughly probed. The present study investigated the molecular phylogeny and species relationship of all five species in the genus Lallemantia, using ribosomal protein L16 and the multilocus ISSR markers. It also compared their morphometric, anatomical and seed results. The species were efficaciously delimited by the morphological, anatomical and seed characters, as well as by ISSR and cpDNA markers. The PCA (Principal components analysis) plot of the species based upon the morphological characters, the MDS (Multidimensional Scaling) plot of the species based on the nutlet and anatomical characters, the NJ (neighbor joining) tree plot of ISSR data and the ML tree of cpDNA revealed closer affinity between L. iberica and L. canescens and L. peltata was placed at some distance from these species. The phylogenetic trees displayed monophyly of the genus Lallemantia. The Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis by Sampling Trees (BEAST) analysis unveiled that the studied Lallemantia species started to diverge about 25 million years ago

Intra-specific variations in Silene: Morphometry and micromorphometry analyses

The Silene species are annual, biennial or perennial herbs mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere, Europe, Asia and northern Africa. The section, Inflatae Boiss., is the smallest section of the genus containing three species and four subspecies in Iran, out of which one subspecies is endemic with very restricted distribution in the western and northern regions. Studies on seed morphology with scanning electron microscope (SEM) have revealed taxonomically useful micro-characters. The present study was performed to study morphological and micromorphological features in seven Silene species and subspecies in the sect Auriculatae and Inflatae growing in Iran, to study their intraspecific variations and to find out if such data can be used in taxonomy of the genus. The grouping obtained by unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) dendrogram separated the species of the section Inflatae from the species of the section Auriculatae. Siahbishe population of Silene vulgaris differed in morphological characters and was placed some distance from the other studied populations. It also had the highest values of total haploid chromosome length (50.51 μM), size of the longest chromosome, (5.42 μM), size of the shortest chromosome (2.88 μM) and the mean chromosome length (4.21 μM). Therefore morphological differences of this population may be related to its higher total chromosome length (genome size), compared to those of other populations studied. We also suggested that the Siahbishe population to be considered as a new variety of S. vulgaris, based on both morphological and cytological grounds. The seed type in both section are symmetrical reniform, asymmetric reniform and rounded-reniform. In the sect. Auriculate, the length of seed ranged from 1.22 to 2.23 mm, while the size of seed width ranged from 0.86 to 1.38 mm. In the sect. Inflatae, the length of seed ranged from 1.30 to 1.86 mm and the seed width ranged from 0.80 to 1.42 mm. These two sections differed in some other seed characteristics which are discussed.Keywords: Morphometry, taxonomy, seed characteristics, Silene.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(33), pp. 5208-521

Genetic and morphological variability in medicinal plant Helichrysum oocephalum Boiss. (Asteraceae) in Iran

Helichrysum oocephalum is a medicinal plant of the genus Helichrysum that grows in limited area in Iran. This species is used by locals and therefore, it faces a negative selection pressure and should be protected. For plant genetic conservation, we need detailed data on population genetic variability and structure. Moreover, local geographical populations may differ in their genetic content and form different gene pools. Therefore, we carried out population genetic investigation and morphological studies in five geographical populations of Helichrysum oocephalum that are distributed in Markazi-Khorasan and Razavi-Khorasan provinces. Sixty-eight plant specimens were collected and used for morphological and population genetic studies by using ISSR molecular markers. AMOVA produced significant genetic difference (PhiPT = 0.196, P = 0.010) and revealed that, 80% of total genetic variation was due to within population diversity and 20% was due to among population genetic differentiation. Gst (0.218, P = 0.001), Hedrick, standardised fixation index (G'st = 0.233, P = 0.001) and Jost, differentiation index (D-est = 0.06, P = 0.001), revealed that the studied populations are genetically differentiated. Evanno test performed on STRUCTURE analysis and K-Means clustering produced optimum number of k = 2. These results indicated that we have 2 genetic groups in the studied populations. Morphometric study revealed two major clusters and revealed that populations 1 and 2 are different from the other studied populations. The present findings may be of use in conservation of this medicinal plant in Iran

Anatomy study of the genus Cirsium Mill. in Iran

The genus Cirsium Mill. (Asteraceae) also known as plume thistles with about 250 perennial, biennial or rarely annual spiny species is a phylogenetically unresolved and paraphyletic genus. Cirsium species grow in different ecological conditions and tend to form interspecific hybrids. Some species are morphologically very similar and need to be delineated by additional anatomical and molecular characters. About 28 Cirsium species have been reported in Flora Iranica; they were classified in five sections. Taxonomic investigation of these species was confined to morphology and molecular study of RAPD and ISSR markers. The present study carried out anatomical investigation (leaf and stem characters) of Cirsium species in the country. PCoA analysis of anatomical characters could delimit the studied species and the grouping obtained was almost in agreement with morphological and sectional delineation of the genus. The results obtained are in agreement with several other investigations and all together suggestive of the continued gene flow and introgression between Cirsium species that make taxonomy and phylogenetic relationship of the species difficult

Species delimitation and inter-specific gene flow in Tamarix L. (Tamaricaceae)

Tamarix L. play important role in preventing deforestation in Iran. Tamarix species exhibit wide range of morphological variation therefore, the species delimitation become difficult. This is further complicated due to similarity of morphological characters in closely related species and the occurrence of interspecific hybridization. The present study was performed to identify Tamarix species and their potential hybrids in Semnan Province of Iran. We used ITS and ISSR and 42 morphological characters for our investigation. Molecular phylogeny of the studied species and their relationship was not in agreement with the species tree of morphological characters and with taxonomic treatment of the genus. HGT tree of ITS and morphological data obtained revealed the occurrence of inter-specific hybridization or introgression between Tamarix species

Contemporary interspecific hybridization between Dracocephalum kotschyi and Dracocephalum oligadenium (Lamiaceae) : evidence from morphological, anatomical and molecular data

Dracocephalum is the second largest genus in the family Lamiaceae with about 186 species. These species are native in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and occur in the territory of the extra-tropical Asia and Europe. Eight Dracocephalum species reported in Iran; these are mainly growing in the northern and central parts of the country belonging to the Irano-Turanian phytogeographical region. Dracocephalum kotschyi is an important medicinal plant .in the country. At the same time, taxonomic position of Dracocephalum oligadenium is a challenging issue. In this work morphological, anatomical and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers were used to identify these species in Iran. MDS plot based on morphological and anatomical characters, furthermore, PCoA and MST plot based on ISSR data of species revealed hybridization between D. oligadenium and D. kotschyi

Pollen morphological analysis of the genus Lallemantia (Lamiaceae) of Iran

Lallemantia is a small genus of Lamiaceae with five herbaceous annual or biennial species. Some of these species are of medicinal value, while others have been used as the source of food. All five Lallemantia species occur in Iran. Although, there are many discussions about infra-generic variations in the genus, very scarce comprehensive studies are found about its taxonomy. Therefore, in the current study, pollen grain morphology was investigated using scanning electron microscopy. We used SPSS ver. 15 and PAST ver. 2.17 for multivariate statistical analyses of data. In total, we studied eleven qualitative and quantitative traits. Pollen equatorial and polar views were similar among the species and were prolate and circular, respectively. Pollen ornamentations differed as bireticulate (L. royleana and L. iberica), microreticulatm (L. peltata and L. Baldshuanica) and reticulate- faveolate (L. canescens). PCA-biplot showed some traits such as pori length/width ratio were important in identifications of species. The studied species created two groups in the WARD method tree of palynological data. L. royleana and L. baldshuanica were grouped together, and in the other group L. canescens and L. iberica placed nearly and L. peltata placed far from them. Our obtained results were similar to previous morphological study of the genus. The present study revealed taxonomic implication of the micromorphological study in the interspecific classification of the genus

Species delimitation and relationship in Crocus L. (Iridaceae)

The genus Crocus L. (Iridaceae) is monophyletic and contains about 100 species throughout the world. Crocus species have horticultural, medicinal and pharmacological importance. Saffron is the dried styles of C. sativus and is one of the world’s most expensive spices by weight. Controversy exits about the taxonomy of the genus and the species relationship. Exploring genetic diversity and inter-specific cross-ability are important tasks for conservation of wild taxa and for breeding of cultivated C. sativus. The present study was performed to study genetic variability and population structure in five Crocus L. species including Crocus almehensis Brickell & Mathew, C. caspius Fischer & Meyer, C. speciosus Marschall von Biberstein, C. haussknechtii Boissier, and C. sativus L. by inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) molecular markers. We also used published internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences to study species relationship and compare the results with ISSR data. The results revealed a high degree of genetic variability both within and among the studied species. Neighbor joining (NJ) tree and network analysis revealed that ISSR markers are useful in Crocus species delimitation. Population fragmentation occurred in C. caspius and C. sativus. Both ISSR and sequenced based analyses separated C. sativus from the other studied species. Close genetic affinity of C. sativus and C. pallisii and inter-specific gene flow was supported by both data sets

Genetic finger printing of cotton cultivars by ISSR molecular markers

Gossypium hirsutum is one of the main tetraploid cotton species that is cultivated throughout the world. Due to continuous selection of cotton cultivars for specific agronomic traits, the genetic variability within the cultivars decrease that lead to genetic erosion. To tackle the problem of reduced genetic variability, we should track all available genetic diversity within cotton germplasm and use them for inter-specific and intra-specific hybridization and produce new elite cotton cultivars. Therefore, the present study used ISSR molecular markers to illustrate genetic variability in 13 tetraploid cotton genotypes (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and to categorize these genotypes based on genetic affinity. 65 cotton plants were studied. The results identified private bands in the studied genotypes, while Network and STRUCTURE analyses of molecular data obtained grouped the genotypes with genetic affinity together. Some of the genotypes differed in their genetic content from the others; therefore, studying the genetic and agronomic variability within available cultivars is very important and produced data to broaden the gene pool for planning further hybridization in cotton