B. Abdollahi Mandoulakani - Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Islamic Republic of Iran.
P. Sadigh - Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Institute of Biotechnology, Urmia University, Urmia, Islamic Republic of Iran.
H. Azizi - Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Guilan University, Rasht, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Y. Piri - Department of Plant Biotechnology, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Sh. Nasri - Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Islamic Republic of Iran.
S. Arzhangh - Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Islamic Republic of Iran.

The effectiveness of IRAP, REMAP, SSR, and ISSR markers were investigated to assess genetic diversity among and within eight Medicago sativa L. populations. A total of ۱۰۱, ۱۱۹, ۱۱۷ loci and ۳۱ alleles were amplified using ۱۰ IRAP, ۱۴ REMAP, ۱۶ ISSR and eight SSR primers, respectively. IRAP markers generated the maximum proportion of polymorphic loci per primer (PPLP) while the maximum value of percentage of polymorphic loci (PPL) was observed for SSR markers. ISSR markers showed the highest value of marker index (MI). The maximum amount of expected heterozygosity (He), effective number of alleles (Ne), and Shannon’s information index was produced by SSR markers. UPGMA cluster using Nei’s genetic distance coefficients and combined data of four markers separated the populations into three major groups. Correlation coefficients among pairwise genetic and geographic distance matrices, made on the basis of all studied markers, were calculated using Mantel's test. Regression and correlation analysis between genetic distance and geographic distance showed no significant correlations (p>۰.۰۵).

Cluster Analysis, Marker Index, Medicago sativa, Retrotransposon-based markers