Abstract
Tamarix is an important genus of Tamarieaceae family, known for its medicinal importance. Its taxonomy is tricky, and a few molecular makers are available for species identification. The present study was designed to evaluate the genetic diversity among 21 Tamarix specimens collected from Thal desert, Punjab, Pakistan. Ten Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) and six Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers were used. Results revealed that ISSR markers produced 131 bands, of which 116 were polymorphic (88.5%) with a mean Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) value of 0.34. The SSR markers yielded 30 amplified bands, of which 24 were polymorphic (80.28%) with mean PIC value of 0.35. Cluster and factorial analysis revealed a high level of genetic variability among tested Tamarix ecotypes. Dissimilarity index indicated a genetic variability among tested specimens ranging from 0.00 to 0.77. The ISSR analysis reflected that Tamarix specimens stemming from Kalurkot and Bhakkar region revealed the highest dissimilarity level with respect to the rest of the specimens.