Analysis of genetic relationships among Rosa damascena plants grown in Turkey by using AFLP and microsatellite markers.

Rosa damascena Mill. is the most important rose species for rose oil production. The main rose oil producers in the world are Turkey and Bulgaria and they obtain the rose oil almost exclusively from R. damascena. In spite of coming from the same original populations, R. damascena plants grown in Turkey show some morphological differences. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the genetic relationships among R. damascena plants grown in Turkey by using microsatellite and AFLP markers. Twenty three AFLP and nine microsatellite primer pairs were used for this aim. No polymorphism could be detected among the plants, as the marker patterns obtained from different plants are identical. The conclusion from these data is that all R. damascena plants under study are derived from the same original genotype by vegetative propagation. Furthermore, the observed morphological differences originate from point mutations not detectable by molecular markers. Therefore, they are equivalent to sport mutations frequently observed in cut and garden rose varieties.