Evaluation of genetic diversity in Alcea (Malvaceae) using SRAP markers

In this work, sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) marker was employed to assess the genetic diversity and genetic similarity relationships among14 species of Alcea collected from northwest of Iran. Seventeen SRAP primer combinations generated 104 fragments, of which 97 (93%) were polymorphic, with an average of 5.7 polymorphic fragments per primer. Percentage of polymorphism ranged from 50% (ME2-EM6) to a maximum of 100%, and mean polymorphism information content value obtained was 0.3. The lowest genetic similarity (0.17) was observed between A. sophiae and A. flavovirens, while the highest was found between A. digitata and A. longipedicellata (0.68). Two main clusters were detected using UPGMA, which did not correspond to geographical origin of the species. The study indicates that SRAP markers could be good candidates for assessing genetic variation in Alcea.