Fingerprint and genetic variation of eight date palm cultivars (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Usage SSR markers and morphological characters.

Abstract

The date palm is regarded as one of the most important economic fruit trees worldwide. The experiment was carried out to find the fingerprint and variance for eight date palm cultivars. Utilizing fruit's morphological characteristics and molecular (Simple Sequence Repeat) markers. The molecular markers of SSR primers yielded 152 bands, with an average of 25.33 bands per primer. The results showed that there were 51 polymorphic alleles in total, with a range of 1 to 6 alleles in the genotype loci and an average of 8.5 alleles. This resulted in a percentage of the total polymorphism of 100%. Additionally, primers produced distinctive bands totaling 18 distinct bands for the cultivar. Major allele frequency was on average 0.313. Genetic diversity was measured using a value of 0.794, which shows that cultivars have a high level of genetic variation. The expected mean heterozygosity was 0.875, while the mean value of the information content was 0.766 for polymorphisms. According to the results of the morphological study, there were two groups that contained cultivars. Hilali and Sultani recorded the highest level of genetic similarity between them, totaling 0.967, while Khalas and Nabtat Seif recorded the lowest level, 0.722. Date palm cultivars are distinguished from one another using morphological traits and molecular SSR markers.