classification of iranian garlic (allium sativum l.) ecotypes using rapd marker

background: garlic is a valuable medicinal plant with variability in desirable morphological and physiological characteristics. the analysis of genetic diversity plays an important role in breeding programs. the rapd technique could be very effective in detecting genetic variation in garlic.  objective: the objective of the present work was to detect molecular polymorphism among iranian garlic ecotypes by rapd technique.   methods: random amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) marker utilized to assess the genetic diversity among twenty-two different ecotypes of the iranian garlic. genomic dna was extracted from young leaves using dellaporta method. rapd amplification was performed using ten 10-mers arbitrary primers.   results: results indicated that five out of ten pair primers had no amplification. a total of 35 rapd bands were produced, 31 of which (88.5%) were polymorphic. the similarity matrices and dendrogram were obtained using upgma algorithms. conclusion: in conclusion the entire population was grouped into four clusters with 3, 9, 1 and 9 ecotypes. no significant relationship between genetic diversity detected by rapd technique and geographical origins.