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Article

Exploratory SSR-Based Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Differentiation Among Four Wild Almond Populations in Kazakhstan

by
Aidyn Orazov
1,2,
Talant Samarkhanov
1,*,
Anar Myrzagaliyeva
1,
Moldir Yermagambetova
3,
Sultan Kauanov
1,
Yerlan Turuspekov
3,
Serik Irsaliyev
1,
Shynar Tustubayeva
1 and
Bauyrzhan Turalin
4
1
Laboratory “NatureLab”, Astana International University, 8 Kabanbay Batyra Ave., Astana 010000, Kazakhstan
2
Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, 1 Ilji Miecznikowa Str., 02096 Warsaw, Poland
3
Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, 45 Timiryazev Street, Almaty 050040, Kazakhstan
4
Department of Biology, K. Zhubanov Aktobe Regional University, 34 Alia Moldagulova Ave., Aktobe 030000, Kazakhstan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Plant Biol. 2026, 17(8), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijpb17080067
Submission received: 21 June 2026 / Revised: 27 July 2026 / Accepted: 28 July 2026 / Published: 31 July 2026
(This article belongs to the Section Plant Biochemistry and Genetics)
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Abstract

Wild almond relatives are valuable reservoirs of allelic variation for crop improvement and conservation, yet Kazakhstan’s wild-almond genetic resources remain poorly characterised. We conducted an exploratory SSR assessment of 80 putative individuals from four taxon-locality groups (20 per group), each representing one sampled population: Prunus ledebouriana, P. tenella, P. petunnikowii, and P. spinosissima. Of 22 nuclear simple sequence repeat loci screened for cross-taxon transferability, 15 generated reproducible profiles and were retained; their even genome-wide distribution was not verified. Across the full dataset, the mean number of alleles was 3.55, the effective number of alleles was 2.62, expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.544, and 95.0% of loci were polymorphic. Missing genotypes ranged from 0.0% to 34.7% among groups, and six loci had at least 20% missing data. AMOVA attributed 76.5% of variation to within-group differences and 23.5% to among-group differences (PhiPT = 0.235, p = 0.001). PCoA, unbiased Nei distances, UPGMA, and descriptive Bayesian clustering separated the four sampled groups. A nine-locus sensitivity analysis that excluded the six high-missing loci retained P. spinosissima as the group with the highest mean He (0.699), whereas P. petunnikowii increased from 0.471 to 0.609. Thus, the low full-panel estimate for P. petunnikowii was not robust to missing data. Because taxon identity was fully confounded with locality and the marker panel was limited, the results are interpreted as a regional marker-transferability and methodological baseline rather than as species-wide or genome-wide inference.
Keywords: crop wild relatives; marker transferability; missing-data sensitivity; germplasm; Central Asia; conservation genetics; subgenus Amygdalus crop wild relatives; marker transferability; missing-data sensitivity; germplasm; Central Asia; conservation genetics; subgenus Amygdalus

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MDPI and ACS Style

Orazov, A.; Samarkhanov, T.; Myrzagaliyeva, A.; Yermagambetova, M.; Kauanov, S.; Turuspekov, Y.; Irsaliyev, S.; Tustubayeva, S.; Turalin, B. Exploratory SSR-Based Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Differentiation Among Four Wild Almond Populations in Kazakhstan. Int. J. Plant Biol. 2026, 17, 67. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijpb17080067

AMA Style

Orazov A, Samarkhanov T, Myrzagaliyeva A, Yermagambetova M, Kauanov S, Turuspekov Y, Irsaliyev S, Tustubayeva S, Turalin B. Exploratory SSR-Based Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Differentiation Among Four Wild Almond Populations in Kazakhstan. International Journal of Plant Biology. 2026; 17(8):67. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijpb17080067

Chicago/Turabian Style

Orazov, Aidyn, Talant Samarkhanov, Anar Myrzagaliyeva, Moldir Yermagambetova, Sultan Kauanov, Yerlan Turuspekov, Serik Irsaliyev, Shynar Tustubayeva, and Bauyrzhan Turalin. 2026. "Exploratory SSR-Based Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Differentiation Among Four Wild Almond Populations in Kazakhstan" International Journal of Plant Biology 17, no. 8: 67. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijpb17080067

APA Style

Orazov, A., Samarkhanov, T., Myrzagaliyeva, A., Yermagambetova, M., Kauanov, S., Turuspekov, Y., Irsaliyev, S., Tustubayeva, S., & Turalin, B. (2026). Exploratory SSR-Based Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Differentiation Among Four Wild Almond Populations in Kazakhstan. International Journal of Plant Biology, 17(8), 67. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijpb17080067

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