Cannabis sativa
L. is a multiple-use plant. However, its
cultivation is strictly controlled due to its psychoactive
nature and usage in producing drugs such as
marijuana, and hashish. In this study, psychoactive type
Cannabis
samples, which were seized from 29 different locations of Turkey, were used. Interests were to
identify the genetic relatedness of the seized samples
and to partition molecular variance between and within
populations. Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNAs
were employed for analysis based on single plant material and bulked samples of them. Data were
analysed via cluster and principal coordinate analyses
(PCoA). Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was
performed to obtain variations between and within
populations.
Cannabis accessions were basically
separated into two main groups by PCoA and cluster
analyses according to geographical regions. One of them
was made up of
Cannabis plants, which were seized
from mostly western part of Turkey (group 1). The
other one was made up of
Cannabis plants that were
seized from mostly eastern part of Turkey (group 2). It
is found that 20.23% of the genetic variation is due to
differences between accessions groups while 79.77% of
the genetic variation is due to between accessions within
accessions groups. Compared to group 1, group 2
showed more variation.
