Wafaa Choumane (1) Haytham Ismael(1) Safaa Sabbouh*(2) Mazen Rajab(3) and Ammar Amran(3)
(1). Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria.
(2). Administration of Horticulture, General Commission for Scientific Agriculture Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.
(3). Department of Biotechnology, Latakia Research Center, GCSAR, Damascus, Syria.
Received: 16/06/2019 Accepted: 02/08/2019
Abstract
The target of this research was the molecular characterization and the estimation of genetic diversity of trees belonging to P. ursina in the Syrian coastal area. This study was conducted during the period started from 2016 to 2018. 35 trees (genotypes) were collected from (6) sites (Jabla, Kasab, Drekesh, Kab, Brmant AL mshaeh and Msiaf) and were used for DNA analysis by 17 SSR primer pairs. The results showed that out of 17 primer pairs, only 6 were polymorphic and produced 14 different alleles. Number of alleles ranged from (2) to (4) with a mean of 2.3 alleles/primer pair. The genetic diversity was estimated for each locus and ranged from 0.37 (TPScp9F/ TPScp9R) to 0.51 (BPPCT038F/BPPCT038R) and (CPDCT014/AY862451). Dendrogram based on genetic distance results was established and two groups were obtained. The first group included samples from Brmant AL mshaeh, Kasab and Jabla, while the second group had samples from Msiaf, Kab and Drekesh. Samples from Drekesh were the most distant. No variation was detected between samples from the same site, but found among the different sites. Level of genetic diversity in P. ursina was low in the sites investigated, therefore there is a need to continue collecting more samples from other sites to detect the genetic diversity of p. ursina and keep them in gene bank gene bank in order to use them in future genetic improvement programs.
Key words: P. ursina, Molecular characterization, Geneticdiversity, Syrian coast.
Full Paper in Arabic: PDF