RAPD markers reveal polymorphism among some Iranian pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) genotypes

In this study RAPD markers were used to determine the diversity level among 24 Iranian pomegranate genotypes. One hundred decamer random primers were used for PCR reactions, among which 16 showed reliable polymorphic patterns. These primers produced 178 bands, of which 102 were polymorphic. Cluster analysis of the genotypes was performed based on data from polymorphic RAPD bands, using Jaccard's similarity coefficient and UPGMA clustering method. The highest and lowest similarities detected between genotypes were 0.89 and 0.29, respectively. At a similarity of 60%, the genotypes were divided into four sub-clusters. Cophenetic correlation coefficient between similarity matrix and cophenetic matrix of dendrogram was relatively high (r = 0.9) showing the goodness of fit of the dendrogram. RAPD markers showed to be a useful tool for studying the genetic diversity of pomegranate.