Investigation of agro-morphological, phytochemical and molecular diversities among some Turkish and Iranian milk thistle populations (Silybum marianum L. Gaertn)

This research was carried out to determine the genetic diversity among 17 Turkish and Iranian milk thistle populations and one registered variety with name of Budakalaszi using agro-morphological, phytochemical and molecular (iPBS) markers. The experiment was conducted in Experimental Farm of Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture in Ege University, according to randomized blocks design with four replications in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 cultivation season. According to the results of study, there were statistical differences (Population, Year and Population × Year) in all agro-morphological characteristics examined among the populations. The lowest plant height value was obtained from Zanjan population (118.6 cm) and the highest plant height value was obtained from Ahvaz population (173.6 cm). In this research, grain yields of the populations ranged from 75.45 to 190.58 kg/da, silymarin ratio from 9.3 to 11.8% and silymarin yield from 7.46 to 20.08 kg/da. the highest grain and silymarin yields were obtained from Menemen population (190.58 kg/da and 20.08 kg/da, respectively). Also the highest rate of silymarin was determined in the Kermanshah population (11.8%). As a result of 13 iPBS primers that used in the experiment were produced 93 bands in total and 35 polymorphic bands (37.63%) among them. The highest and lowest PIC value was obtained from iPBS-2391 (0.72) iPBS-2415 (0.31) primers, respectively. The mean of PIC value representing all primers was calculated as 0.50. populations Dendrogram that obtained from the clustering analysis in the milk thistle plants have been divided into three main groups, and population structure analysis of populations have been separated to four main groups. These results indicated that the milk thistle plants have rich genetic resource in term of diversity in Turkey and Iran. Existing this diversity in milk thistle population indicated that to be available in order to selection of superior types and to improve the variety in breeding programs in terms of the desired characteristics. Furthermore, this study shown that the iPBS marker, which has not been examined before hand on populations of milk thistle, could be used successfully and usefully in determining of genetic diversity of milk thistle. Key words: Silybum marianum L., silymarin, iPBS, phytochemical, agro-morphological