Genetic Characterization of Turkish Commercial Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) Cultivars Using ISSR and SSR Markers

Economically important plant opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) is a medicinal plant producing benzylisoquinoline alkaloids such as narcotic analgesic morphine and codeine, antimicrobial agent sanguinarine. In this study, it was aimed to utilize simple sequence repeat (SSR) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers to help breeding programs of opium poppy containing high level of morphine. 15 ISSR and 5 SSR primers were studied on registered 17 cultivars in Turkey. In ISSR, total 55 bands were obtained, of which 44 were polymorphic. Average genetic distance was found to be 0.27, and Shannon index was 0.38. The least number of bands belonging to primer AT3 was 1 and the highest was 6, belonging to primers AT19, AT8 and AT15. In SSR study, 5 SSR primers were studied and 39 polymorphic bands were obtained. Average genetic distance was found to be 0.47, and Shannon index was 0.46. As a result ISSR and SSR marker systems can be used for classification of the cultivars.