Genetic variation of Eruca sativa L. genotypes revealed by agro-morphological traits and ISSR molecular markers

•The genetic diversity and population structure of E. sativa were analyzed.•Molecular markers and agro-morphological traits used for evaluation of genetic diversity.•Inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) showed satisfactory polymorphism information content for studied genotypes.•Results obtained will be useful for selecting superior parents for future breeding programs in E. sativa. Taramira (Eruca sativa L.) is an oilseed crop with extensive industrial and pharmaceutical applications. The present study was carried out to identify genetic diversity in 60 different genotypes of E. sativa L. using 19 inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) molecular markers and 12 agro-morphological traits, collected from different geographical regions of the world. The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that there was a significant difference among genotypes in terms of all agronomic traits (except for capitula length and 1000-seed weight). In this study, genotype 161 (with Iranian origin) had the highest grain yield per plant (519.57 gm−2). The number of 19 ISSR primers generated a total of 286 polymorphic bands which polymorphism information content (PIC) value varied from 0.17 (in UBC827 primer) to 0.31 (in UBC825 primer) with average of 0.25. Genetic diversity statistics showed that, the UBC840 primer had the most significant role in differentiating genotypes. Taramira genotypes were divided into three subgroups in cluster analysis of molecular traits using unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) method and the STRUCTURE methods. There was a considerable similarity between the geographic origin of genotypes and molecular classification pattern. Therefore, the selection of genotypes with a high genetic distance in terms of the molecular marker, along with desirable agronomic traits, can be effective in future breeding programs of taramira in order to produce new superior hybrids.