Variation in Hyoscyamus spp. Populations from Jordan Using Morphological Traits and RAPD Markers

Variation of twelve Hyoscyamus aureus, four H. desertorum and two H. reticulatus populations from Jordan were investigated at the phenotypic level with morphological characters and at DNA level using the Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique. Sixteen morphological traits were measured after 100 days from planting. There was a significant difference among the collected populations in 12 out of 16 morphological traits. The three highly polymorphic selected primers generated 60 RAPD bands with 39.5% mean level of the proportion of polymorphic loci. Multivariate procedures using dendograms and Principle Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) were used to classify the collected populations on the basis of phenotypic traits and RAPD fragments. RAPD estimate of genetic relationships among Hyoscyamus species was consistent with morphological study results. From the cluster analyses using dendograms and PCoA, it appears that morphological traits and RAPD markers were useful to separate the populations at the species level. Cluster analysis of the morphological and RAPD data indicates that H. aureus and H. desertorum populations were grouped with each other, revealing closer genetic relationships of the two species with each other than with H. reticulatus. A wide range of genetic distances was observed among populations within the same species, which might be due to high degree of ecogeographical heterogeneity among collection sites. In conclusion, the present study serves as a base knowledge of the phylogenetic relationships for future studies among and within the genus Hyoscyamus