evaluation of genetic diversity in fennel accessions using aflp markers

in this study, genetic diversity of 30 accessions of the fennel from different cities of iran and other asian and european countries were assessed by using 20 selective aflp primers. totally, from 1127 observed bands, 250 bands were polymorph. e11-m20 primer with 20 bands, also e46-m35 and etg-m20 primers with 8 bands indicated the maximum and minimum numbers of polymorphism, respectively. according to these markers, similarity among the genotypes was 60%. the most genetic similarity was 0.97, found between two genotypes from hungary. in iranian genotypes, genetic similarity was 0.89 which was found between karaj and kashan genotypes. one genotype from tabriz with a genetic diversity of 40% exhibited the most scope of diversity in comparison with other genotypes. the results from cluster analysis to some extent showed a relationship between molecular diversity and geographic diversity, in a way that the genotypes gathered from regions close to one another were in some cases placed in the same groups or subgroups. on the other hand, some of the genotypes placed in the same subgroups, were from different geographic regions, which could also be a reason for similarity of regional conditions or physical interchange of elements in these regions. the results of this study showed that aflp markers are proper tools for assessing genetic diversity of fennel accessions.