Comparison of Effectiveness of ISSR and RAPD Markers in Genetic Characterization of Seized Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa L.) in Turkey

This paper presents results from comparison of effectiveness of Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR), Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), and ISSR and RAPD (ISSR-RAPD) markers together in characterization of Cannabis accessions. The plant material used was common accessions of psychoactive Cannabis samples (a total of 17 accessions), which were used in discriminating drug type Cannabis from hemp type Cannabis via ISSR and characterization of Cannabis samples via RAPD. Data were analyzed via cluster and principal coordinate analyses (PCoA). Discriminating powers of ISSR and RAPD markers on the seized Cannabis accessions were evaluated by utilising polymorphism information content, resolving power and marker index (MI). The PCoA of ISSR and ISSR-RAPD markers data produced similar results. Average resolving power and MI values of ISSR assay found to be slightly higher than those of RAPD assay. Consequently, ISSR markers would be a better choice compared to RAPD markers in characterization of Cannabis accessions.