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Genetic Relationships among Basil (Ocimum Spp.) Accessions as Revealed by RAPD and AFLP Markers

A number of species belonging to genus Ocimum is widely cultivated as a source of essential oil for use in foods, flavours and fragrances as well as a culinary herb, spice and garden ornamental. The taxonomy of Ocimum is somewhat confused due to interspecific hybridization, polyploidy, and the existence of chemotypes or chemical races that do not differ significantly in morphology. Twenty-eight basil accessions including six species of Ocimum (O. basilicum, O. americanum, O. x citriodorum, O. minimum, O. gratissimum, O. tenuiflorum) and six botanical varieties or cultivars of O. basilicum (var. basilicum cv. Genovese, var. basilicum cv. Sweet Basil, var. difforme, var. purpurascens, cv. Dark Opal and var. thyrsiflorum) were analyzed by both Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Phylogenetic relationships were determined by Neighbour Joining cluster analysis based on Dice distance between accessions. A very strong correlation between Dice distance matrices based on RAPD and AFLP data has been observed and the resulting Neighbour-Joining trees were congruent. High bootstrap support values for the branches separating O. tenuiflorum and O. gratissimum accessions, a cluster containing O. americanum and O. x citriodorum accessions, and a cluster containing O. basilicum and O. minimum accessions were observed in both cases giving a good representation of traditional taxonomic relationships. Within the O. basilicum cluster similar accessions generally grouped together especially in case of O. minimum, O. basilicum cv. Dark Opal, and O. basilicum var. difforme accessions. In addition to morphological, chemical and crossability data, RAPD and AFLP analyses can be a useful tool for resolving existing problems in identification and classification of basils.

aromatic plants; molecular markers; cluster analysis; phylogeny; genetic resources

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