Genetic Diversity Among Sumac Accessions Collected From Five Areas of Iran

Abstract Sumac (Rhus coriaria L.) has been used in human nutrition as herbal drug to treat different diseases for centuries. In recent years, its genetic improvement has engrossed more consideration because of its substantial portion to human health and nutrition. Middle East region, including Iran being its origin. However, the diffused cultivation of sumac, endangers its existence in the future, so its protection and genetic improvement may cause extensive cultivation. This investigation aims to determine the genetic variation among 23 sumac accessions. Of 18 different traits, consist of four descriptive characters were used. Analysis of variance demonstrated significant differences for all of the morphological characters, and the coefficient of variation ranged from 3.6% in seed length to 37.9% in the weight of the bunch. Results of mean comparison through LSD test indicated that accessions YA6, AB1, and AB2 following to YA10, KB1, KB2, KB3, and AB3 were the best performing accessions for most of the morphological traits. The cluster analysis classified accessions into four groups as Cluster-I can be regarded for the weight of ten fruit while Cluster-IV can be regarded for the weight of the bunch. The accessions of Cluster-II and Cluster-III had relatively good or average magnitudes for most of the studied charters, and they can be used for improving these sumac traits considering goals of the breeder. The factor analysis explained 74.81% (39.71% and 35.10% by factor-1 and factor-2, respectively) of the total variation. Traits leaf length, leaf width, terminal leaflet length, and terminal leaflet width are positively correlated based plot of the first two factors. Accessions YA6, AB1, and AB2 were the best performing accessions in terms of studied traits and are worth germplasm for next genetic improvement projects in sumac because they can be selected as parents for crossing and breeding new sumac cultivars in the future.