Study of genetic diversity and differentiation of argan tree population (Argania spinosa L.) using AFLP markers

Abstract

The argan tree (Argania spinosa L. Skeels, Sapotaceae) is a genetic resource endemic in Morocco. Genetic diversity within and among 13 populations (130 genotypes) of argan tree was studied using AFLP markers. Having checked twenty combinations of labeled primers for regular genomes (500-6000 Mb) (EcoRI+3/ MseI+3 selective bases) and for small genome (50-500 Mb) (EcoRI+2/MseI+3 selective bases), we selected four combinations specific for regular genome able to produce a relatively high polymorphism and a low error rate (0.12 %). A total of 477 unambiguous peaks were amplified ranging from 70 to 500 bp. The average polymorphism information content (PICAVG) value ranged from 0.19 to 0.23. Marker index (MI) and resolving power (RP) varied from 21.23 to 28.82 and 27.63 to 44.92, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 19 % of the genetic variation was partitioned among populations and 81 % of the genetic variation was within populations. This was confirmed by the coefficient of gene differentiation between populations (Gst=0.22), and gene flow was estimated to 1.709. The STRUCTURE analysis, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and Unweighyhed Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) revealed that populations of A. spinosa were clustered into three genetic groups. The present results can be explored in the design of in situ and ex situ conservation and management programs.

Assessment of genetic diversity and population structure of an endemic Moroccan tree (Argania spinosa L.) based in IRAP and ISSR markers and implications for conservation

“…The present analysis revealed a high genetic differentiation among the studied populations (Gst = 0.5391), this could be seen as evidence of low gene flow between the populations (Nm = 0.4). Similar results were found by Mouhaddab et al (2015) using ISSR markers and by Pakhrou et al (2016) using AFLP markers. The high differentiation among A. spinosa L. populations is consistent with studies of other endemic species like Cupressus gigantean (Gst = 0.36) (Xia et al 2008) while it was higher than other forest species such as sessile oak (Gst = 0.026) (Kremer et al 2002).…”

“…In recent years, different molecular techniques have been used to study genetic diversity of argan tree including RFLP of chloroplast DNA (El Mousadik and Petit 1996), SSR (Majourhat et al 2008), ISSR (Yatrib et al 2015) and AFLP (Pakhrou et al 2016). However, all these studies have not taken into consideration global distribution of argan tree in Morocco and most studies have involved a limited number of samples.…”

Genetic, Morphological, and Biochemical Diversity of Argan Tree (Argania spinosa L.) (Sapotaceae) in Tunisia

“…The earliest research into the genetics of this species looked at isozyme markers isolated from chloroplast DNA using Polymerase Chain Reaction- Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) [6,7]. Later, a study was published that used Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) [14,15], and Single Sequence Repeats (SSR) [15] as well as Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats ISSR Polymorphism [16,17,18] and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) [19], and more recently Inter Retrotransposon Amplified Polymorphism (IRAP) markers [20]. On the aforementioned techniques, ISSR presents the most consistent method of gene mapping, and yields the greatest number of polymorphic fragments per primer.…”

Selective Methods to Investigate Authenticity and Geographical Origin of Mediterranean Food Products

“…To our knowledge there is no paper reporting DNA analysis on argan oil, however there are two studies where genomic approach was used to analyse the genetic variability of argan trees [72,73] , which could represent the basis to identify potential biomarkers for authentification. Moreover, some papers describe DNA based technologies for the identification of plant oils [74,75] that may be an alternative or complementary platform to the traditional analytical methods to found adulteration in argan oil.…”