Genetic diversity of castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) in Northeast China revealed by ISSR markers

Abstract Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers were employed to analyze the genetic diversity of Ricinus communis L. in northeastern China plants. We selected ten primers that produced clear, reproducible and multiple bands for these experiments and 179 bands were obtained across 39 genotypes. Polymorphic band ratios ranged from 100% to a minimum of 78.9% with an average of 96.4% while band numbers were comprised between 13 (UBC823) and 23 (UBC856). The results obtained from UPGMA clustering dendrogram and PCoA lead to 39 distinct castor bean accessions belonging to four major groups. We found that all groups shared a common node with 66% similarity while Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranged from 0.58 to 0.92. Compatible inference was also observed from the high values of heterozygosity (Ht = 0.3378 ± 0.0218), Nei's genetic diversity ( H  = 0.1765 ± 0.2090), and Shannon's information index ( I  = 0.4942 ± 0.1872). In addition, our data reveal a Nei's genetic differentiation index ( G ST ) of 0.3452 and estimated the gene flow ( Nm ) at 0.9482. These findings clearly suggest a genetic diversity in castor bean germplasms from various geographic origins and contribute to our understanding of breeding and conservation of castor beans.