Genetic Diversity of Local Endemic Teucrium leucophyllum Montbret & Aucher ex Bentham. (Lamiaceae) in Turkey

Background and Objective: Teucrium leucophyllum is endemic plant species having considerable narrow distribution in Erzincan (Turkey) Region. The aim of this study was to determine genetic diversity levels of T. leucophyllum in order to obtain data for its conservation. Method: Genomic DNA was isolated from 81 plants using CTAB method. Genetic diversity in four natural populations of T. leucophyllum was investigated by ISSR markers. A binary matrix was produced by scoring each amplified fragment as present (1) or absent (0) from each individual. The matrix was used to produce an input file and analyzed using the software programs; POPGENE 1.32 and GenAlex. Results: Twenty primers amplified a total of 434 bright and discernible bands of 220–3000 bp, of which 431 bands (PPB: 99.31%) were polymorphic in 4 populations. The genetic diversity was high at the species level; the observed number of alleles (Na) was 1.993, the effective number of alleles (Ne) was 1.404, the Nei’s genetic diversity (H) was 0.263, and the Shannon’s information index (I) was 0.418. A high level of gene flow (Nm: 2.208) and low-moderate genetic differentiation (Gst: 0.184) were also observed. Analysis of molecular variance showed that 11% of the total genetic diversity resided among populations, while 89% within the populations. Conclusion: Our results indicated that the conservation efforts should aim to preserve the extant populations of this endangered species in its natural habitat. Seeds could be collected from Kayacik and Bagistas populations for ex situ conservation practices.