MOLECULAR AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN SOME IRANIAN SAFFRON (Crocus sativus L.) ACCESSIONS

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is renowned as the most expensive spice in the world. This perennial species belongs to Iridaceae family. Germplasm collection and preservation are one of the main priorities for a better and successful crop improvement. In this study, preliminary evaluation of morphological and molecular diversity among 29 accessions of saffron from Iran was investigated. Several important traits such as length and number of leaves, leaves surface, fresh and dry weight of leaves were measured. RAPD markers using 17 primers were also used to evaluate molecular divergence among the accessions. Simple correlation analysis among morphological traits showed significant positive correlations in most characters, but negative correlations between emergence time and other characters. Cluster analyses based on morphological and molecular data produced dissimilar groups in due to data type. In both dendrograms three distinct groups were resulted and the most of the accessions were placed in the first cluster. Also, the groupings showed no association between diversity patterns and geographical origins. In molecular analysis, out of 17 primers that produced 108 polymorphic bands, 12 primers showed complete polymorphism. The maximum and minimum genetic similarities were 0.98 and 0.42, respectively. This results support abilities of these approaches as economical and quick technique to determination of diversity among saffron accessions.