Abstract

Jordan mainly southern part hosts immense diversity of several plant species genotypes. Yellow asphodel (Asphodeline lutea) along with other Asphodelus species was grown at Jordan. Asphodeline lutea is an edible plant and will become a threat due to overexploitation. This investigation was headed for studying the genetic diversity within A. lutea species based on RAPD markers. Five primers gave reproducible bands and were selected for detecting the diversity. Thirty amplification profiles were obtained, seven of them were polymorphic. Jaccard's coefficient of similarity ranged from 0.83 to 1.00 values. UPGMA cluster analysis clearly distinguished the samples and grouped them into two main groups. The results accessible in this paper revealed low genetic diversity among A. lutea individuals. This demonstrates the usefulness of RAPD markers in detecting genetic variation either among or within genotypes.