Genetic diversity of ornamental Allium species and cultivars assessed with isozymes.

The aim of the study was to verify the similarity of 13 species and 5 cultivars of ornamental alliums and classify them into groups based on morphological and isozyme variation. The work embraced: Allium aflatunense, A. caeruleum, A. christophii, A. giganteum, A. karataviense, A. moly, A. nigrum, A. pyrenaicum, A. rosenbachianum, A. schubertii, A. siculum (syn. Nectaroscordum siculum), A. sphaerocephalon, A. strictum, A. stipitatum 'Album', A. 'Ivory Queen', A. 'Lucy Ball', A. 'Mont Blanc', and A. 'Purple Sensation'. Scape length, inflorescence diameter, and flowering period were recorded. Isozyme marker polymorphism was assessed by starch gel electrophoresis. Eight polymorphic isozyme systems (AAT, GPI, PGM, ALAT, ACP, DIAP, ALDO, PGD) were selected from 16 analysed in the taxa. Besides the differences between the taxa, the isozymes revealed intraspecific polymorphism in 5 systems. A total of 37 markers were obtained and used for dendrogram construction. The most similar taxa were A. karataviense with A. 'Ivory Queen', and A. karataviense with A. christophii (similarity level 0.78). A high similarity of 11 taxa belonging to one group (A. aflatunense, A. christophii, A. giganteum, A. karataviense, A. nigrum, A. schubertii, A. 'Ivory Queen', A. 'Lucy Ball', A. stipitatum 'Album', A. 'Mont Blanc', A. 'Purple Sensation') suggested that this group could be identified with the subgenus Melanocrommyum.