Category Archives: Biotechnology

Genetic Diversity of Some Wheat (Triticum durum) Genotypes Using SSR Technique

Reham Abo Al-Kanj*(1) Ghinwa Lababidi(1) and Naim Al-Husien(2)

(1). Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Technical Engineering, University of Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria.

(2). Aleppo Research Center, General Commission of Scientific Agricultural Research Center (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Reham Abo Al-Kang. E-Mail: perfume-1990@hotmail.com).

Received: 02/05/2018                                Accepted: 01/10/2018

Abstract

The understanding of wheat genetic variation is considered the basis for successful plant breeding programs.the use of molecular markers in genetic diversity assessment studies and in plant breeding programs has become critical. Therefore, the research aimed to studying the genetic diversity of durum wheat genotypes, it was carried out at the Biotechnology Laboratory of the Aleppo Research Center during 2016 – 2017. The DNA was extracted from all genotypes by using CTAB method, and determined its quality, purity, and quantity.  SSR technology is used to study the genetic diversity with 13 primers and the dendrogram was drew using UPGMA method according to Jaccard coefficient. The results showed there were 160  bands ranged between 100-2000 bp. PIC value was between 0.14-0.37, So the wms70، wms666، wms642، wms408 primers showed the best results. Cluster analysis showed that genotypes distributed in two main clusters. The similarity ranging from 0.21 – 0.9. This confirms the efficacy of SSR markers in detecting a wide range of genetic variation and its ability to identify genotypes.

Keywords: Durum wheat, Genetic diversity, Molecular markers, SSR.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Micropropagation of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Khadhrawy cv.

Wathiq Abdulmajeed*(1) Zahra Al- Hattab(1) Mahmood Al- Ani(1) Shuker Ebraheem(1) and Jabbar Jabr(1)

(1). Department of Genetic Engineering, Biotechnology Center, Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Wathiq Abdulmajeed. E-Mail:zainab.goldy@yahoo.com).

Received: 06/04/2019                                Accepted: 03/08/2019

Abstract

This research was conducted at the Tissue Culture Laboratory, Department of Genetic Engineering, Directorate of Agriculture Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Iraq, in 2017. The main objective was to establish the best method for In Vitro micropropagation of Khadhrawy economical Iraqi date palm cultivar. Shoot tips, lateral buds and leaf primordial were detached from the offshoots and surface was sterilized with 1% sodium hypochlorite with Tween 20. Explants were cultured on modified MS medium supplemented with 10 mg.l-1 of NAA, 10 mg.l-1 2,4-D, 10 mg.l-1 NAA+ 2 mg.l-1 2,4-D or 10 mg.l-1 2,4-D + 2 mg.l-1  NAA for callus initiation. Induced calli were transferred to regeneration medium. Regenerated shoots were rooted on medium supplemented with 1 mg.L-1 IBA. The results showed that the highest quality of calli was induced on medium supplemented with 10 mg.l-1 2,4-D + 2 mg.l1  NAA which was significantly different from the other treatments. Moreover, the shoot tips were the best explants to induce calli from Khadrawy cultivar compared with leaf primordial and lateral buds. The interaction analysis showed that the highest quantity of calli was produced from shoot tips cultured on medium supplemented with 10 mg.l-1  2,4-D + 2 mg.l-1  NAA which was highly significant from  all other combinations, while the lowest quantity of calli was produced from lateral buds cultured on medium supplemented with 10 mg.l-1 NAA. The average number of plants regenerated from 0.5 g calli was 30 after 2 months. The rooted shoots were successfully acclimatized and transferred to the nursery.

Keywords: Date palm, Khadhrawy c.v., Micropropagation, 2,4-D, NAA

Full paper in English: PDF

Use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Technique to Detect Sheep Meat Adulteration

Raghdaa Aslan(1) Naiem Al Hussein(2) Fateh Khatib(3) Mustafa Asaeed(4) and Asmaa Maaz*(1)

(1). Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Faculty of Technical Engineering, Aleppo University, Aleppo, Syria.

(2). Aleppo Research Center, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.

(3). Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Aleppo University, Aleppo, Syria.

(4). Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Technical Engineering, Aleppo University, Aleppo, Syria. (*Corresponding author: Asmaa Maaz. E-Mail: asmaa.990@hotmail.com).

Received: 16/09/2017                                Accepted: 24/10/2017

Abstract

Consumers, especially in poor countries, suffer from many kinds of meat adulteration by substituting cheaper and less nutritious meat with costly ones. Traditional morphological analysis or others based on component analysis are usually applied to identify undeclared meats, but these methods often produce incorrect or unreliable results, Therefore, finding more precise and reliable methods is critical in food authentication. DNA-based techniques have been widely used in this field due to their sensitivity, speed and high accuracy. In this study, species- specific PCR technique was employed to analysis 18 sheep meat samples to detect substitutions with beef, goat, chicken, turkey or pork meat. The detection process was based on specific primers targeting cytochrome b coding gene. The results showed that all samples were mixed with one or more types of meat. The expected fragment of DNA was obtained from each pair of other used primers. Cheating with goat meat was the most frequent among samples with a ratio of 94.44%. while the lowest frequent was with turkey 16.66%, and finally, adulteration with pork meat was not recorded in any sample.

Key Words: Species specific PCR, Meat adulteration, Cytochrome b gene.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Effect of Salinity and Radiation on Regeneration of Two Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Genotypes Callus In vitro

Saadoon AL-Ajeely(1) Shaza Yousif(2) and Zeinab AL-Hussaini*(2)

(1). Faculty of Girl Education, Kufa University, Kufa, Iraq.

(2). Agricultural Research Directorate, Center of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Baghdad, Iraq.

(*Correponding author: Dr. Zienab Al-Hussaini. E-Mail: zainab.goldy@yahoo.com).

Received: 07/12/2017                           Accepted: 24/01/2018

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to study effect of radiation and salt levels on plant regeneration from callus for two cultivars of potato i.e. Riviera and Burren, under in vitro condition. Results showed that the efficiency of radiation in induced regeneration from callus in Riviera cultivar at salt level of (10 dS m-1) and Burren cultivar at salt levels (8, 12 dS  m-1). For the purpose of making sure inheritance of salinity tolerant, mutant clones (plants induced from salt tolerant calli, which planted at salt levels of 8, 10, 12 dS m-1 and plants induced from non salt tolerant calli, which planted at salt level of 6 dS m-1) and their parental cultivars (Riviera and Burren) by exposing to salt stress conditions and comparing them with control (6 dS m-1). Results revealed that the lowest percentage of reduction in plant height, number of nods per plant and tuberization were observed in salt tolerant mutants. Plant height and number of nodes/plant can be considered as selective morphological markers for  in vitro salt tolerance .

Key words: Potato,  Radiation,  Salinity, Regeneration, in vitro. 

Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Identification of Some Local Apple Cultivars and Genotypes Using SSR Markers

Bayan Muzher*(1) and Ola Al-Halabi(1)

(1). Biotechnology Division, Apple Center Department, General Commission for Scientific Agriculture Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Bayan Muzher. E-mail: bmuzher@hotmail.com).

Received: 24/08/2016                           Accepted: 27/09/2016

Abstract

The current research was carried out during 2012-2013 to identify and screening some of local apple cultivars and genotypes, which distributed in different environmental regions using SSR markers. Fifteen local apple cultivars and genotypes were collected, in addition to two commercial cultivars; Golden delicious and Royal gala and three seedling genotypes. Genetic analysis were achieved using 16 SSR primer pairs, 15 of them were able to detect the polymorphism in the studied genotypes. The total number of polymorphic alleles was 40, with polymorphism percentage of 97.56%. The number of alleles ranged between 1- 4 alleles, with an average 2.56 alleles per locus. Genetic similarity ranged from 13 to 100%. The Cluster analysis divided the studied genotypes into two clusters, the first cluster included Golden delicious with Royal gala and the two seedling genotypes A and B in addition to most of genotypes collected from the coastal region, and Skarji cultivar, while the second cluster included C seedling genotype besides the local apple cultivars Sukari1, Sukari2, and Shmamti, also four local apple genotypes. Expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.495, while observed heterozygosity (Ho) was 0.285. Consequently, SSR markers were able to detect the genetic variability among studied genotypes that belong to local apple cultivars, which lead to reduce the time and efforts for determining their genetic identity.

Key words: Apple, Local cultivars, SSR, Genetic similarity.

Full paper in Arabic: PDF