DNA  FINGERPRINTING  OF  SOME  PAKISTANI  DATE  PALM

(PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA L.) CULTIVARS USING ISSR MARKERS

 

AMEER AHMED MIRBAHAR^1,3*, SAIFULLAH KHAN^1,2,

G. SARWAR MARKHAND³, NAHEED KAUSER¹ AND RAFAT SAEED⁴

 

¹Biotechnology Wing, International Center for Chemical & Biological Sciences,

H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi-Karachi-75207, Sindh, Pakistan,

²Departement of Agriculture & Agribusiness Management, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

³Date Palm Research Institute, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan

⁴Department of Botany, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

^*Corresponding e-mail: amir_salu@yahoo.com

 

Abstract

 

Date palm is one of the oldest cultivated and economically important fruit trees. First time Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) markers were used with twenty five economically important date palm cultivars of Pakistan for DNA fingerprinting analysis. Samples were collected from four provinces of Pakistan i.e., Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Balochistan. The study was carried out using seven ISSR markers. The twenty five date palm cultivars showed variation at the DNA level. The ISSR primers showed high polymorphism (84%) in the studied date palm cultivars. Dice’s similarity index was in range from 0.608 to 0.980 and Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) divided twenty five date palm cultivars into two main clusters and sub-clusters. However ISSR markers efficiently discriminated for assessing genetic diversity among commercial Pakistani date palm cultivars.

 

Key words: Phoenix dactylifera L., ISSR markers, Genetic diversity, Phylogenetic relationship, Pakistan.