Polymorphism and genetic diversity assessment of some ornamental ferns by microsatellite (ISSR) markers

Abstract: This study assessed the genetic diversity of six ornamental ferns in parks and gardens in Nigeria using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Genomic DNA were extracted from the samples and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was performed using seven ISSR markers. The elcetrophoregram showed amplicon size ranged from 100bp-1Kb among the ferns. A total of 87 bands were generated with 71.26 % polymorphism and 28.73 % monomorphic bands. The average number of band per primer was 12.4 and polymorphism range was between 31.23-100 %, the highest polymorphism was obtained with ISSR2. The mean Nei’s genetic diversity was 29 % while the Shannon’s index was 43.5 %. The pair of Adiatum capilus-veneris and Pteris acanthoneura had maximum genetic distance of 0.6592 while A. capilus-veneris and A. furcans are the closest species. At genetic similarity of 78 %, the cluster analysis revealed two major groups. Group-1 comprised of four species, where P. acanthoneura is a distant member, the other three species in the group are closely related. Group-2 on the other hand had two closely related Adiantum species. The study concludes that ISSR markers are effective in the genetic study of the ferns and the genetic diversity information provided could be utilized for selection, improvement and conservation of the ornamental plants.