MOLECULAR AUTHENTICATION OF THYMUS PERSICUS BASED ON NRDNA ITS SEQUENCES DATA

Thymus persicus is an endemic species of the genus Thymus (Lamiaceae) which grows in Zanjan and West Azerbaijan (Takab) provinces of Iran. Among the Iranian Thymus species, T. persicus is well differentiated by having the smallest leaf width among Thymus species with long non-glandular and short glandular hairs. In order to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships of the T. persicus and T. marandensis Jamzad, the recently and assumed related species to T. brachychilus Jalas and T. leucotrichus Hal., a molecular analysis based on nrDNA ITS sequences of 25 accessions belonging to 19 species of Thymus together with representatives of genera Origanum, Thymbra, Satureja, Micromeria, Gontscharovia, Ziziphora, Saccocalyx and Zataria was performed. The results of phylogenetic analysis showed that the genus Thymus is paraphyletic when the monotypic genus Saccocalyx is included and its sister relationship with Origanum was confirmed. While the phylogenetic position of T. persicus among the other taxa of Thymus is appeared unresolved. T. marandensis turned out to be the sister to a group of Thymus species including T. carmanicus, T. migricus, T. pubescens, T. trautvetteri and T. daenensis.