Assessment of genetic diversity in the Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) based on ISSR genetic markers

Elaeagnus is a Eurasian tree with 77 species worldwide. In this study, ISSR markers were used to establish the level of genetic relationships and polymorphism across nine genotypes of Elaeagnus angustifolia collected from 9 different regions of West Azarbaijan province. The ISSR analysis with 11 anchored primers also generated 116 scorable loci, of which 92 were polymorphic (79.3%). The estimated Jaccard similarity coefficient ranged from 0.44 to 0.76 for the ISSR markers. Cluster analysis was carried out, based on the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA) and the dendrogram drawn with the help of the NTSYSpc 2.02 software. The analysis revealed 5 main clusters for the ISSR data. According to our results, there is a relatively high genetic distance across E. angustifolia genotypes in the West Azarbaijan province of Iran. Furthermore, it could be inferred that ISSR markers are suitable tools for the evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships within the Elaeagnus genus.