ANALYSIS OF MORPHOLOGIC ASSOCIATION, PHYTOCHEMICAL AND AFLP MARKERS IN MILK THISTLE (SILYBUM MARIANUM L.)

To investigate the relationships between morphological, phytochemical and molecular markers in milk thistle, a set of 32 ecotypes collected from Iran along with two introduced varieties, Budakalaszi and CN seeds, were evaluated. Canonical correlation analysis between 8 morphological attributes and 7 flavonolignan compounds forming silymarin revealed that first two canonical variables showed high canonical correlations. The loadings of the canonical correlations indicated that ecotypes having higher values for 1000 seed weight and lower values for flowering time, plant height, capsule diameter and seed yield would have higher silychristin and silybin and lower silydianin contents. In other words, larger seeds would have higher silybin and lower silydianin. Out of 415 polymorphic markers, 37 and 29 markers showed significant association with flavonolignans markers and morphological attributes, respectively. The informative markers showed 54 and 45% of the variation for taxifolin and silychristin, respectively. In the case of morphological traits, more than 40% of 1000 seed weight, flowering date and plant height variation were determined by informative AFLP markers. Results of the study clarified that some of qualitative and quantitative properties of essential oil in milk thistle can be well predicted by morphological and also molecular markers.