Phenotypic and genetic variation among Astragalus species from Turkey

Fatty acid (FAs) and RAPD profiles were used to examine phenotypic and genetic relationships among five Astragalus species, namely A. declinatus, A. microcephalus, A. aduncus, A. xerophilus and A. erinoceus, which were grown as wild in Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. All of five Astragalus species tested in this study were separated based on the presence and composition of 69 different FAs. Four of Astragalus species including A. declinatus, A. xerophilus, A. erinoceus and A. aduncus, were rich in terms of FA contents containing at least 28-55 different FAs. Six of the twelve decamer primers examined were selected to find out genetic polymorphism in Astragalus species. Total 36 polymorphic bands were observed, ranging in size from 300 hp to 2 100 bp. The RAPD results suggested that A. microcephalus, A. erinoceus, and A. aduncus are closely related and completely different than the other species. Three genetically distinct groups were found between Astragalus species. The results of the present study suggest that both RAPD and FA analysis are useful methods, which can be used for differentiation of Astragalus species.