Use of RAPD Markers for the Genetic Characterization of Limonium Species

The genus Limonium (fam. Plumbaginaceae) consists of about 300 species ofmostly herbaceous perennials, some low shrubs, and annuals. Most botanical speciesare endemics in the Mediterranean region, but many species have their centre oforigin in Caucaso, Turkestan, Caspian Sea, Russia, Iran, China, and South Africa.Limonium is grown in several regions of the world for use as a cut flower for bothfresh and dry-flower arrangements.In this work, RAPD analyses were used for thestudy of genetic relationships in Limonium. Thirteen wild species were tested with 10primers. A total of 244 bands were scored and used for the analysis of geneticdistances. The dendrogram obtained from cluster analysis showed high similarityamong three species that some authors report as synonymous and that appearedvery similar from our previous phenotypic observations (L. caspia, L. bellidifoliumand L. otolepis). In order to clarify the genetic relationships, further analyses werecarried out on several genotypes belonging to these species. The new dendrogram,obtained scoring 151 RAPD bands, showed that the genotypes did not group in clearclusters. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) confirmed this trend: the highestgenetic variation resulted among genotypes and only 6,58 % of the total variationresulted among the species. These results suggest that the species can be consideredsynonymous. The use of RAPD markers in our case was thus useful for clarifying thehighly probable identity of the three Limonium species, in a plant genus that isnotably of difficult interpretation.