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The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is a widespread tree species in the Mediterranean region. The aim of this study was to determine the level of genetic diversity in nine sweet chestnut populations naturally distributed in three different biogeographical regions of Türkiye using ISSR and SCoT markers. In total, 180 chestnut genotypes were screened with 13 ISSR and 16 SCoT primers giving reproducible and clear bands. The 13 of the ISSR and the 16 of the SCoT primers have shown a total of 178 and 297 amplified bands, respectively. The ISSR markers were found to give higher values in the polymorphism information content (PIC), the resolving power (RP) and the marker index (MI) indices. Mantel test calculated between original/unbiased Nei’s genetic distances via ISSR and SCoT markers and the results showed a significant correlation between ISSR and SCoT (p = 0.001), indicating a common genetic heritage among the species. In particular, according to population genetic diversity parameters, it was found that the genetic diversity level of the Duzce population (located in Black Sea region) was higher than other populations. The UPGMA cluster analyses showed that there was no clustering according to biogeographic distribution for either marker method. In conclusion, the results of this study have the potential to contribute to the conservation of chestnut genetic resources in Türkiye.
Beyazyüz et al. (Fri,) studied this question.