SUMMARY
Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to investigate genetic variability within thirteen Viburnum species (Viburnum × hillieri; V. dilatatum; Viburnum × carlcephalum; V. opulus; V. hupehense; Viburnum× bodnantense; Viburnum × burkwoodii; V. sieboldii; Viburnum × globosum ‘Jermyns Globe’; V. alnifolium (lantanoides); V. plicatum ‘Sterile’; V. plicatum f. tomentosum and V. plicatum ‘Watanabe’) of wide geographical distribution, collected in the Dendrological Garden in Przelewice (the north-west part of Poland). Twenty-three RAPD and fourteen ISSR primers generated a total of 690 and 418 reproducible bands, respectively, and 39% (RAPD) and 55.5% (ISSR) of them were polymorphic for the two marker systems, which suggest high genetic variability within Viburnum genus. However, high numbers of genotype-specific bands, i.e. 60.9% (RAPD) and 44.5% (ISSR), were seen in Viburnum. Genetic similarity assessed within Viburnum species with the RAPD and ISSR analyses ranged from 6 to 42% and from 6 to 31%, respectively. Both RAPD and ISSR-based dendrograms clustered in five main groups. The Mantel test between two Nei’s similarity matrices gave correlation coefficient r=0.305*, showing low correlation between RAPD- and ISSR- based matrices. Thus, both marker systems were equally important for the genetic diversity analysis in Viburnum genus.