Genetic diversity of Tunisian and Indian date palm cultivars and genotypes revealed by AFLP markers

Abstract

Background The date palm breeding programs need to discover useful genetic fingerprints to characterize cultivars and assess their genetic diversity. This study assessed the genetic diversity among thirty-nine date palm cultivars from Tunisia and India using six AFLP (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism) markers. Results A total of 360 loci were amplified, with 127 loci polymorphic (34.35%). The Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranged from 0.161 to 0.931, with the mean genetic distances of 0.568. AFLP's average marker index value was 7.28, with a resolving power of 10.91. The dendrogram showed a clear separation between Tunisian and Indian cultivars. Furthermore, the heat map analysis allowed the identification of 10 bands specific to the Indian accessions, which were not detected in Tunisian genotypes. Conclusions These loci could be linked to genes involved in the adaptation of the specie in Indian lands. The current finding can be used in the future breeding program by helping to select accessions adaptable to the specific environment.

Molecular Identification of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure in Moroccan Male Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Using Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat, Direct Amplification of Minisatellite DNA, and Simple Sequence Repeat Markers

“…Another study assessed the genetic diversity among thirty-nine date palm cultivars from Tunisia and India using six amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. The findings indicated a clear separation between Tunisian and Indian cultivars with accessions being grouped according to their geographical origin [17]. In Tunisia, a genetic analysis of wild African date palms revealed strong genetic differentiation between Western and Eastern date palms, demonstrating high diversity among North African accessions [31].…”

“…In order to overcome this limitation, molecular markers have been employed to effectively reveal and characterize the genetic diversity differentiation present in date palms. Various molecular markers, including random amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD) [12][13][14], amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) [15][16][17], simple sequence repeats (SSRs) [11,[18][19][20], inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) [14,21,22] sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) [23,24], and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) [25], have been employed to assess the genetic diversity of date palms.…”