RAPD and Cytogenetic study of some pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cultivars

Abstract

RAPD markers variations were studied in ten pomegranate cultivars. Forty RAPD primers were used producing 2050 bands in total. Two hundred and fifteen bands were polymorphic (about 10.50%) and 1835 bands were monomorphic (80.50%, Figure 1). Primers H02 and R01 produced the highest number of polymorphic bands (13 bands, 0.63%), while primer R15 produced no polymorphism. Specific bands were observed in some of the cultivars, which may be used for differentiating cultivars. Different similarity coefficients determined among the cultivars studied, showed the highest value of similarity between cultivars Bihasteh and Berit (r = 0.86) while the lowest value of similarity occurred between the cultivars Alakshirin and Bihasteh (r = 0.36). Different clustering methods showed distinctness of the pomegranate cultivars studied. The grouping of the cultivars did not correlate with the cytogenetic clustering.

Key words:

• Clustering
• Cytogenetic
• Pomegranate
• RAPD