Characterization of ten date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars from Saudi Arabia using AFLP and ISSR markers.
Date palm is the most economically important plant in the Middle East due to its nutritionally valuable fruit. The development of accurate DNA fingerprints to characterize cultivars and the detection of genetic diversity are of great value for breeding programs. The present study explores the usefulness of ISSR and AFLP molecular markers to detect relationships among 10 date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars from Saudi Arabia. Thirteen ISSR primers and six AFLP primer combinations were examined. The level of polymorphism among cultivars for ISSRs ranged from 20% to 100% with an average of 85%. Polymorphism levels for AFLPs ranged from 63% to 84% with an average of 76%. The total number of cultivar-specific markers was 241, 208 of which were generated from AFLP analysis. AJWA cultivar had the highest number of cultivar-specific ISSR markers, whereas DEK, PER, SUK-Q, SHA and MOS-H cultivars had the lowest. RAB and SHA cultivars had the most and least AFLP cultivar-specific markers, respectively. The highest pairwise similarity indices for ISSRs, AFLPs and combined markers were 84% between DEK (female) and PER (female), 81% between SUK-Q (male) and RAB (male), and 80% between SUK-Q (male) and RAB (male), respectively. The lowest similarity indices were 65% between TAB (female) and SUK-Q (male), 67% between SUK-A (female) and SUK-Q (male), and 67% between SUK-A (female) and SUK-Q (male). Cultivars of the same sex had higher pairwise similarities than those between cultivars of different sex. The Neighbor-Joining (NJ) tree generated from the ISSR dataset was not well resolved and bootstrap support for resolved nodes in the tree was low. AFLP and combined data generated completely resolved trees with high levels of bootstrap support. In conclusion, AFLP and ISSR approaches enabled discrimination among 10 date palm cultivars of from Saudi Arabia, which will provide valuable information for future improvement of this important crop.
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Jamal S M
JS
Sabir
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Microbial Genetics Department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Division, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.
Salah
S
Abo-Aba
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Sameera
S
Bafeel
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Talal A
TA
Zari
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Sherif
S
Edris
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.
Ahmed M
AM
Shokry
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed
A
Atef
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Genetics and Cytology Department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Division, National Research Center, Dokki, Egypt.
Nour O
NO
Gadalla
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.
Ahmed M
AM
Ramadan
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Genetics and Cytology Department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Division, National Research Center, Dokki, Egypt.
Magdy A
MA
Al-Kordy
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Fotouh M
FM
El-Domyati
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
Robert K
RK
Jansen
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University (KAU), P.O. Box 80141, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: bahieldin55@gmail.com.
Ahmed
A
Bahieldin
D054458:Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis; D028023:Arecaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D044822:Biodiversity; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012529:Saudi Arabia
D018744:DNA, Plant; D005819:Genetic Markers
AFLP; Date palm; Fruit color; Fruit shape; Genetic similarity; ISSR; PCA plot; Sex