Farnaz Goodarzi - Department of Horticulture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
Reza Darvishzadeh - Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran Institute of Biotechnology, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
Abbas Hassani - Department of Horticulture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is one of the most ancient medicinal oil crops in the world. It has beenvastly distributed in different parts of Iran. In the present study, the inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR)markers were used to evaluate the molecular genetic diversity among and within 12 castor accessionscollected from 6 regions of Iran. Totally, 16 ISSR primers amplified 166 loci, of which 116 loci (69.89%) were polymorph, indicating high genetic variability in castor germplasm. An accession-specific ISSRband was detected in ‘80-29’accession. Genetic distance among accessions ranged from 0.2 to 0.056.Analysis of molecular variance revealed a higher level of genetic variation within (80%) than between(20%) accessions. A model-based Bayesian approach subdivided 60 genotypes from 12 accessions into 6subgroups. UPGMA dendrogram based on Nei’s genetic distance classified 12 accessions into 4 groups.The result indicates that there was no association between geographical origin and ISSR patterns. Theresults suggest that ISSR technique is a useful tool for studying genetic diversity in castor germplasm.

Bayesian clustering, Genetic diversity, ISSR, Ricinus communis