Applicability of SCoT and SSR Molecular Markers for Genetic Diversity Analysis in Chrysanthemum morifolium Genotypes

Chrysanthemum is ranked second among the most economically important cut flowers after rose. This flower is considered very significant from different aspects of commercial herbs and traditional medicine. In this study, 30 simple sequence repeat (SSR) and 8 start codon targeted polymorphism (SCoT) markers were used to assess the genetic diversity of 32 cultivated varieties of C. morifolium . In total, 127 alleles were detected. The average number of alleles per marker locus was 2.13 for SSR (ranging from 1 to 4) and 7.78 for SCoT markers (ranging from 1 to 18). A positive significant correlation between similarity matrices was obtained by the two markers. Average PIC values for SSR and SCoT markers were 0.37 and 0.34, respectively. The results of clustering for both marker systems divided the genotypes into four clusters. These findings revealed that the efficiency of SSR and SCoT markers was relatively the same in fingerprinting of chrysanthemum genotypes. The authors performed combination of SCoT and SSR markers as a novel method to assess genetic diversity in chrysanthemum. Further implications of the results could be used in germplasm conservation and enhancing the genetic base of the breeding programs of C. morifolium .