Determination of genetic diversity of natural sage populations in Mugla region of Turkey

Abstract

Turkey, which is a very rich country in terms of medicinal and aromatic plants including sage, is one of the world's leading gene sources. Thyme and sage that is the medicinal and aromatic plant are naturally grown in the Aegean region. In the present study, 16 ISSR molecular markers were used in the determination of genetic correlations among 8 sages picked up from forests and mountains in Mugla province in the Aegean region. In this study, the average polymorphism rate was determined as 69.84%; in addition, 44 polymorphic bands, totally 63 bands were obtained. As a result of unweighted pair group method with arithmetical average (UPGMA) analysis, the most distant sages to each other were the ones belonging to the Bodrum and the Yerkesik locations, and the ones nearest to each other were obtained from Bodrum and Marmaris locations. On the other hand, in terms of the genetic variation, Dalyan, Koycegiz, Marmaris and Bodrum locations constituted the first group, and Gocek, Dalaman and Fethiye locations constituted the second group, whereas the sages belonging to the Yerkesik location formed a group by itself. This study revealed that there was a significant genetic variation among the populations of sages grown naturally in Mugla region.