676 PB 160 IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF PISTACHIO (Pistacia vera L.) CULTIVARS WITH RAPD MARKERS

Abstract

<jats:p>The Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was used to characterize 15 cultivars of pistachio <jats:italic>(Pistacia vera</jats:italic> L.). A total of 37 polymorphic markers were considered in this study. Each cultivar exhibited a unique molecular phenotype and, as a consequence, can be uniquely fingerprinted. A similarity and cluster analysis based on the amplified fragments produced two distinct groups which are consistent with the known geographical origin of the cultivars. Our results suggest that RAPD analysis can provide a new alternative for cultivar identification and classification of pistachio.</jats:p>

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) Domestication and Dispersal Out of Central Asia

“…and P.vera seedling rootstocks in Iran). For this reason, we may observe two separate clusters distinguished earlier by Hormaza and collegues [21,38].…”

“…Interestingly, despite being dispersed by birds, the wild pistachio appears to have remained isolated in these small glacial refugial pockets through the Holocene until humans began dispersing it. It is also possible that wild pistachios could have occupied a larger area, likely to the west of the extant wild range, possibly stretching into what is now the Turkmen or Kurd mountains of northern Syria [21]. The current wild range covers select foothill zones in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, southeastern Kazakhstan, northern Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran.…”

“…Hormaza et al [21] tracked genetic relatedness and geographic movements in P. vera. Their study distinguished two clusters among 13 studied pistachio varieties, the: (1) Mediterranean cluster consisted of cultivars originating in the Mediterranean, southwest Asia, and northern Africa; and (2) Iranian-Caspian cluster, with cultivars obtained from east of the Zagros Mountains.…”

“…Only P. atlantica and P. palestina remains have been reported from early Holocene sites in the territory of modern Syria [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. Hormaza et al [21] ultimately agreed that cultivated pistachios originated in southern Central Asia and eastern Iran and later expanded to Syria, where the Syrian population remained isolated long enough to develop a genetically distinct lineage. However, Strabo, describing Persia in AD 24 [59]: (book XV, 3,18) and Syria [59]: (book XVI, 2, 41), based on the information recorded by historians of the fourth century BC, mentioned only P. terebinthus, possibly suggesting that pistachios reached Syria within the past two millennia.…”

“…Recently published data from the Kaynar Kamar Rockshelter [60] illustrate continuous pistachio consumption in Uzbekistan starting as early as the tenth millennium BC. Some scholars have cited pistachio remains dating to the sixth millennium BC in northern Afghanistan, at the site of Shortughai [21,61]. Although, the original archaeological report for the Shortughai excavations [62] and the complementary archaeobotanical study [63], both specifically place the early settlement levels in the late third (not the sixth) millennium BC.…”