Iran has a long history of acid lime cultivation and propagation. In this study, genetic variation in 28 acid lime accessions from five regions of south of Iran, and their relatedness with other 19 citrus cultivars were analyzed using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) and Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) molecular markers. Nine primers for SSR and nine ISSR primers were used for allele scoring. In total, 49 SSR and 131 ISSR polymorphic alleles were detected. Cluster analysis of SSR and ISSR data showed that most of the acid lime accessions (19 genotypes) have hybrid origin and genetically distance with nucellar of Mexican lime (9 genotypes). As nucellar of Mexican lime are susceptible to phytoplasma, these acid lime genotypes can be used to evaluate their tolerance against biotic constricts like lime Bwitches' broom disease^.

Analysis of the genetic diversity and population structure of crops is very important for use in breeding programs and for genetic resources conservation. We analyzed the genetic diversity and population structure of 47 rice genotypes from diverse origins using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and morphological characters. The 47 genotypes, which were composed of four populations: Iranian native varieties, Iranian improved varieties, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) rice varieties, and world rice collections, were analyzed using ten primer combinations. A total of 221 scorable bands were produced with an average of 22.1 alleles per pair of primers, of which 120 (54.30%) were polymorphic. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values varied from 0.32 to 0.41 with an average of 0.35. The high percentage of polymorphic bands (%PB) was found to be 64.71 and the resolving power (R p) collections were 63.36. UPGMA clustering based on numerical data from AFLP patterns clustered all 47 genotypes into three large groups. The genetic similarity between individuals ranged from 0.54 to 0.94 with an average of 0.74. Population genetic tree showed that Iranian native cultivars formed far distant cluster from the other populations, which may indicate that these varieties had minimal genetic change over time. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that the largest proportion of the variation (84%) to be within populations showing the inbreeding nature of rice. Therefore, Iranian native varieties (landraces) may have unique genes, which can be used for future breeding programs and there is a need to conserve this unique diversity. Furthermore, crossing of Iranian genotypes with the genetically distant genotypes in the other three populations may result in useful combinations, which can be used as varieties and/or lines for future rice breeding programs.

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