Assessment of Genetic Stability of Propagated Plantlets of Four Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae) Cultivars and the Establishment of Genetic Relationships Between them by ISSR Markers

The common sea buckthorn or seaberry (Hippophae rhamnoides) is important environmentally, commercially, and as a new berry crop. Some morphological differences among mother plants and lines obtained by cuttings often lead a purchaser to question if the propagated plantlets are true-to-name cultivars. Intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were employed to assess the genetic stability of lines obtained by cuttings of four H. rhamnoides cultivars and the genetic relationships among them. Fifteen ISSR primers generated 174 bands among the 35 samples of four cultivars, 158 of which (90.8%) were polymorphic. Percentages of polymorphic and unique bands between mother plant and propagated plantlets ranged from 53.21% to 77.17% and from 7.09% to 13.76%, respectively. Cluster analysis based on ISSR data indicated that at a Jaccard coefficient of 0.78, mother plant and lines obtained by cuttings for each cultivar were grouped into different subclusters, respectively, which could be further clustered into differ...