Echinopske bericho is an important endangered medicinal plant that is endemic to Ethiopia. The levels of genetic diversity and patterns of population structure in E. kebericho were studied using inter-simple sequence repeat markers (ISSR). Six selected primers were used to amplify DNA samples from 70 individuals, and a total of 79 loci were detected. Our results showed that genetic diversity was high at the species level with percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB) = 93.98%, Nei’s gene diversity (H)= 0.1997, and Shannon information index (I) = 0.3156), while it was relatively low at the population level (PPB = 31.64%; H= 0.0902 andI= 0.1406). A high level of genetic differentiation among populations occurred as reveled by Nei’s genetic diversity analysis (60.33%) and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) (57.34%). The low genetic diversity within population and high population differentiation of E. kebericho were assumed to have resulted largely from limited gene flow (Nm = 0.3287). The results of the present study would provide valid guidelines for collection, conservation and characterization of genetic resources of this critically endangered endemic shrub of Ethiopia.

Keywords: Echinops kebericho, inter-simple sequence repeat markers (ISSR), genetic diversity, genetic differentiation