© by PSP Volume 26 – No. 2a/2017, pages 1756-1764 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 1756 POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE OF ENDEMIC VERBASCUM ALYSSIFOLIUM IN ERZINCAN REGION OF TURKEY Muhip Hilooglu * , Emel Sozen Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Anadolu University, 26470, Eskisehir, Turkey ABSTRACT Verbascum alyssifolium is endemic species having considerable narrow distribution in Erzincan (Turkey) Region. Genetic diversity in three natural populations of V. alyssifolium was investigated by ISSR markers. Twenty primers amplified a total of 390 bright and discernible bands of 200–3000 bp, of which 389 bands (PPB = 99.74%) were polymorphic in 3 populations. The genetic diversity was high at the populations level; the effective number of alleles (Ne) was 1.4107, and the difference value between observed number of alleles (Na) was 1.9974 and the Nei’s genetic diversity (H) was 0.2651, and the Shannon’s information index (I) was 0.4206 and a high level of gene flow (Nm = 4.7793) were observed. Analysis of molecular variance showed that 12% of the total genetic diversity resided among populations, while 88% within the populations, in line with low the gene differentiation coefficient (GST = 0.0947). The low genetic differentiation among populations implies that the conservation efforts should aim to preserve all the extant populations of this endangered species. KEYWORDS: Genetic diversity, ISSR, Endemic, Verbascum alyssifolium INTRODUCTION The Mediterranean Basin, with c. 25.000 plant species [1], constitutes one of the world’s major biodiversity hotspots [2, 3]. As part of Mediterra- nean Basin, Turkey has been recognised as an important plant biodiversity center. In Turkey, 12000 vascular plant species occur naturally, around 3022 (33%) of which are endemic [4, 5]. About 70% of Turkey’s endemic plant taxa are threatened or near threatened with extinction, and at least three are already extinct [6, 7]. Verbascum L. (Scrophularia- ceae) is a one of the largest genera in Turkey, with 238 species and a high endemism level (80 %) [8]. Verbascum alyssifolium Boiss is a rare and endemic plant species that shows narrow distribution around Erzincan (Turkey) region. According to the IUCN criteria, this species was evaluated as DD (Data deficient) in Turkish Plants Red Data Book [9]. The species was first collected from Ilic (Hasanova village and Kurucay)/Erzincan district in 1899 by Sintenis. At present, only three populations of different localities exist in Erzincan. Habitat of V. alyssifolium is under various pressures due to intensive human activities and at high risk of threats [10]. Long-term persistence of a species is dependent on the maintenance of sufficient genetic variation within and among populations. Estimation of genetic variation levels in endemic species is crucial to develop reliable conservation strategies. DNA markers (RAPD, SSR, AFLP, ISSR) have been widely used for estimating genetic variation at interspecific and intraspecific levels and establishing the individual differences among populations. Among these, inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs), which show dominant inheritance, use SSR repeat-anchored primers and therefore enable higher-stringency amplifications [11]. ISSR PCR is a simple and inexpensive technique and has been used in various fields of plant research including genetic diversity studies [12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]. Until to date, only morphological features and habitat characteristics of V. alyssifolium were studied [10], there is no molecular study was con- ducted. Therefore, the aims of the present study were: (i) asses the levels of genetic structure and diversity within and among the three populations of V. alyssifolium, (ii) assess gene flow and genetic differentiation between populations, and (iii) to determine whether the spatial correlation pattern among populations. The results could provide basic information to establish effective conservation stra- tegies for rare and endemic plant V. alyssifolium. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant materials. Whole plant samples for each populations of V. alyssifolium were collected at different locations from Erzincan, Turkey (Figure 1, Table 1) between June and July 2014. The distance between sampled plants was at least 10 m. The