Korori A. A. Soudabeh¹ , Azadfar Davoud² , Shirvany Anoushirvan³ , Valipour K. Hossein⁴ , Matinizadeh Mohammad⁵

1. Research Group of the Technology of Sustainable Natural Ecosystems
2. Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Gorgan
3. Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran
4. Research Group of the Technology of Natural Sustainable Ecosystems
5. Resrach Institite of Forests and Rangelands
Author    Correspondence author
Plant Gene and Trait, 2012, Vol. 3, No. 8   doi: 10.5376/pgt.2012.02.0008
Received: 12 May, 2012    Accepted: 20 Jun., 2012    Published: 28 Jun., 2012

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Soudabeh et al., 2012, Assessment of Genetic Variability in Long-lived Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis Using SSR Markers, Plant Gene and Trait, Vol.3, No.8 43-49 (doi: 10.5376/pgt.2012.03.0008)

The ability of adaptation to environmental changes depends greatly on the genetic diversity of the species. As a member of Cupresacea, Cupressus sempervirens var. horizontalis is one of the four native conifer trees in Iran that distribute in different geographical provinces individually with the high longevity character. Assessing genetic diversity is considered vital for formulating conservation strategies of endangered species such as Cypress. SSR molecular markers were employed to assess genetic diversity. Nei’s gene diversity (H_E) ranged from 0.16 to 0.32 and the average expected heterozygosity (H_E) was 0.26. The mean Shannon indices (H_O) was 0.41. The average Polymorphism Information Content was 0.26. Dendrogram was constructed using UPGMA method divided all individuals into 4 major groups. Principal coordinate analysis shows the first two components account for 51.87% of the total variation. The study implies that more variation needs to be introduced in the existing population for species persistence.

Cupressus sempervirens; Long-lived tree; Genetic diversity; SSR marker