Interspecific Relationships in <I>Allium</I> subgenus <I>Melanocrommyum</I> sections <I>Acanthoprason</I> and <I>Asteroprason</I> (Amaryllidaceae) Revealed Using ISSR Markers

Abstract

Allium subgenus Melanocrommyum is taxonomically one of the most complicated groups within Allium and its sectional delimitation has been changed several times. In the present study, the relationships among 136 individuals representing 28 species of the sections Acanthoprason and Asteroprason were surveyed using ISSR (inter simple sequence repeats) markers. Nine ISSR primers generated 322 polymorphic bands (on average 36 bands per primer). In the resulting neighbor joining dendrogram, most conspecific individuals were grouped into clusters, which can be regarded as evidence of the monophyly of most species. Exceptions were the positions of six single samples of A. graveolens, A. zagricum, A. shelkovnikovii, A. subakaka, and A. materculae, which were not grouped with their remaining conspecific individuals. The clusters in dendrograms were significantly correlated with morphological similarities and biogeographical distributions. The lowest molecular similarity (62%) was observed between A. shelkovnikovii and A. ubipetrense and the most similar taxa (similarity value = 93%) were A. materculae and A. graveolens (sect. Acanthoprason). The results showed that ISSR analysis is suitable to detect the relationship of closely related species. The groups constructed agree only partly with those previously published based on molecular data, and represent alternative proposals to define taxonomic groups.

Karyomorphological variations in some populations of Allium subgenus Melanocrommyum section Acanthoprason in Iran

“…In the present study, the chromosome number of A. minutiflorum and new chromosome number of A. derderianum were revealed for the first time. The chromosome numbers of A. kurdistanicum, A. subakaka and three populations of A. derderianum were in agreement with the previous study (Pedersen and Wendelbo 1966;Akhavan et al 2015). The intraspecies variation in chromosome number which was seen in A. derderianum populations was reported in other Alliums such as A. sativum (Sharma and Bal 1959;Yaghoobi and Malekzadeh Shafaroudi 2013).…”

“…Kochka population of A. derderianum was 2n = 2x = 7m + 2sm (chromosome pairs 6 and 8 had centromeres in the submedian position). In first report of A. kurdistanicum chromosome number for a population of Saghez (Kurdistan Province of Iran), six metacentric and two submetacentric chromosome pairs was observed and the largest chromosome of karyotype had one pair satellites (Akhavan et al 2015).…”

“…Pir Baba Ali, another population of A. subakaka had 2n = 2x = 6m + 2sm (chromosome pairs 1 and 6 had centromeres in the sub median position). In Akhavan et al (2015) work, where recorded the A. subakaka karyological features for the first time, a population from Sulak (Urumieh) had 6 metacentric and 2 submetacentric (chromosome pairs 6 and 8) chromosome pairs with one pair satellites on the largest chromosome. In all of studied populations in this work, no satellite was observed.…”

Genetic Diversity and Taxonomic Studies of Allium Akaka and A. Elburzense Native to Iran Using Morphological Characters

“…According to Fritsch and Maroofi (2010), Allium is represented in Iran by 121 species. Thereafter several new species and subspecies from Allium were described and newly recorded for the Iranian territory (Razyfard et al 2011;Fritsch & Abbasi 2013;Fritsch & Amini Rad 2013, Akhavan et al 2015Aryakia et al 2016). Allium subg.…”

“…These plants are not cultivated, but are collected from the wild. Their populations have declined drastically during recent years, and will soon be threatened with extinction (Akhavan et al 2015). To prevent the extinction of wild plant genotypes, ex situ conservation of germplasm resources was pioneered by Vavilov (1926) and nowadays, germplasm collections hold over 6 million crop plant accessions world-wide (Smykal et al 2008).…”