Molecular Differentiation Between Two Varieties of Rosemarinus officinalis Grown in North East Region of Iraq

In an attempt to differentiate and study one of the most popular medicinal plants (Rosemarinus officinalis L.) grown in the North of Iraq, a number of experiments were carried out to differentiate between subspecies available in Kurdistan Province at the morphological and molecular level. A survey and morphological study was conducted on these subspecies of rosemary in Erbil and Sulaimania governorates, it was found that there are morphological differences in leaves, flowers, shoot growth directions, number
of branches, leaf size and shape, accordingly two subspecies were identified and marked as class A and class B of R. officinalis in north Iraq.Subspecies A was characterized by a straight shoot growth, dark green leaves and whitish blue flowers while subspecies B have random growth, green leaves and white flowers.In order to investigate the genetic variation, the DNA is isolated and purified from the two subspecies, and then electrophorized using agarose gel, chromosomal DNA appeared as a clear smear on gel for both A and B. Six types of restriction enzymes were used to digest the genomic DNA of both subspecies A and B, namely EcoRI, EcoRV, BamHI, HindIII, SalI and SmaI. Resulted genomic DNA was amplified using PCR technique for the Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) as the target sequence, of 668 bp which includes 18S, 5.8S and 26S RNA genes; separated by two ITS regions that represent the non-coding sequence of interest for subspecies identification.In an attempt to differentiate and study one of the most popular medicinal plants (Rosemarinus officinalis L.) grown in the North of Iraq, a number of experiments were carried out to differentiate between subspecies available in Kurdistan Province at the morphological and molecular level. A survey and morphological study was conducted on these subspecies of rosemary in Erbil and Sulaimania governorates, it was found that there are morphological differences in leaves, flowers, shoot growth directions, number
of branches, leaf size and shape, accordingly two subspecies were identified and marked as class A and class B of R. officinalis in north Iraq. Subspecies A was characterized by a straight shoot growth, dark green leaves and whitish blue flowers while subspecies B have random growth, green leaves and white flowers. In order to investigate the genetic variation, the DNA is isolated and purified from the two subspecies, and then  electrophorized using agarose gel, chromosomal DNA appeared as a clear smear on gel for both A and B. Six types of restriction enzymes were used to digest the genomic
DNA of both subspecies A and B, namely EcoRI, EcoRV, BamHI, HindIII, SalI and SmaI.
Resulted genomic DNA was amplified using PCR technique for the Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) as the target sequence, of 668 bp which includes 18S, 5.8S and 26S RNA genes; separated by two ITS regions that represent the non-coding sequence of interest for subspecies identification.