Estimating genetic conformism of Korean mulberry cultivars using random amplified polymorphic DNA and inter-simple sequence repeat profiling

Apart from being fed to silkworms in sericulture, the ecologically important Mulberry plant has been used for traditional medicine in Asian countries as well as in manufacturing wine, food, and beverages. Germplasm analysis among Mulberry cultivars originating from South Korea is crucial in the plant breeding program for cultivar development. Hence, the genetic deviations and relations among 8 Morus alba plants, and one Morus lhou plant, of different cultivars collected from South Korea were investigated using 10 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and 10 inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers in the present study. The ISSR markers exhibited a higher polymorphism (63.42%) among mulberry genotypes in comparison to RAPD markers. Furthermore, the similarity coefficient was estimated for both markers and found to be varying between 0.183 and 0.814 for combined pooled data of ISSR and RAPD. The phenogram drawn using the UPGMA cluster method based on combined pooled data of RAPD and ISSR markers divided the nine mulberry genotypes into two divergent major groups and the two individual independent accessions. The distant relationship between Dae-Saug (SM1) and SangchonJo Sang Saeng (SM5) offers a possibility of utilizing them in mulberry cultivar improvement of Morus species of South Korea.