Infraspecific morphological variations of Salvia limbata in Iran

Abstract

Salvia limbata is an aromatic herb of Lamiaceae, which distributed in different parts of Iran. Studies have revealed that this species has several benefit compounds for human health. In this study, we investigated infra‒specific morphological difference in this species. In total, 21 inflorescence morphological features were evaluated in eight populations; ten individuals were evaluated per each population. Data were analysed using SPSS and MVSP softwares. Morphological traits highly differed among the studied populations and ANOVA test revealed significant differences among most of them. According to UPGMA tree, PCA and PCO plots of morphological characteristics, we reported four distinct phenotypes among the studied populations. CA. Joined plot revealed each of these group were characterized by special traits, which were useful in identification of them. Two phenotypes were monotypic, while the rest were composed of two to four populations. This species has a relative large geographical distribution, the distribution of its populations in diverse area will prevent the focus of natural selection in a given direct. Therefore different phenotypes were found in its different populations.

Genetic variability and population structure of some Iranian Salvia limbata C. A. Mey. populations

“…Leigh & Bryant 2015) revealed that haplotype network (Popart analysis) is performed in the analysis of population genetic data to visualize genealogical relationships at the infraspecific level, and to make inference about population's biogeography and history. Talebi et al (2019b) investigated morphological characteristics of eight populations of this species. They reported high morphological variations among the populations, and these populations were divided into four distinct groups.…”

“…There are several evaluations about infraspecific morphological (Talebi et al 2019b), essential oil composition (Salehi et al 2008;Morteza-Semnani et al 2014) and anatomical (Nejadhabibvash et al 2017) variations in S. limbata. On the contrary, we could not find a study on the population genetic diversity and structure of this species in Iran and the world.…”