Genetic Similarity Among Pistacho (Pistacia vera L.) Female Genotypes and Cultivars Planted in Sweida province Using SSR Technique

Abstract

This researehwork was conducted at the General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research, Sweida Research Center and in the farmer fields at the greenbelt area where pistachio cultivars ara . widely expanding, to assess the genetic variation among female cultivars accredited by Ministry of Agriculture (Ashouri, Batouri, Ajami and Nab Al-jamal) and 43 genetic genotypes using SSR technique. 20 SSR Primer pairs were used, 16 of them were able to detect the polymorphism, which revealed 43 putative alleles, 38 of them were polymorphic (88.37%). The number of alleles ranged from 1 to 7, with an average of 2.69 allele per locus. Genetic similarity was 100% among Nab Al-jamal cultivar and Nab.1 genotype, also between Ajami cultivar and Ajam.2 genotype, indicating that those genotypes are congruentl with the accredited cultivars by Ministry of Agriculture. Cluster analysis using UPGMA method according to Jaccard coefficient clustered all genotypes into 3 main clusters. The genotypes Batouri Grahi (Batg.mj, Bat.1) were separated in an indepent sub group comparison with all other Batouri genotypes comprising the Batouri cultivar. Also the genotype Ashouri Abu Riha (Ash.6) was separated from all other Ashouri genotypes including Ashouri cultivar. To estimate the efficacy of SSR technique, each of the observed heterozygosis (Ho), expected heterozygosity (He), and marker index (MI) were calculated, Ho (0.25), He (0.691), MI (26.258). The results showed the importance and the efficiency of SSR technique in revealing the genetic variation among cultivars at P.vera individual genotypes, especially that some primer pairs revealed unique alleles and co-dominant loci particularly in Batouri Grahi genotypes indicating that these genotypes are might be hybrids due to naturally open cross pollination.