Study of genetic diversity in Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) based on morphological traits and molecular markers

Chamomile is one of the most important medicinal plants in the world trade that has many applications in drug and sanitary industrials. In order to evaluate the genetic diversity of different chamomile landraces based on morphological and molecular markers, 20 landraces were collected from different area of Iran. In addition to that, five populations imported from European were examined. The augmented design with four blocks and five controls were used to assess morphological traits. The RAPID method was utilized for evaluating the genetic diversity. Results showed that the economical yield, the number of flowers in plant, and the essential oil content had maximum variance coefficient. The flower's diameter and height had minimum variance coefficient. According to the cluster analysis on both morphological and molecular markers, 25 populations were classified into 5 clusters, but the population intra-groups were different. From 29 reliable primers that were used, 369 bands were detected and from which 314 (85.44%) bands were polymorphic. Genetic Jaccard's similarity coefficient was estimated in the range of 0.15-0.63, and with a mean of 0.35. Results showed that the genetic diversity was not according to the geographical diversity. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.