Molecular identification and genetic diversity of Iranian date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars using ISSR and RAPD markers

In the present study genomic profiling of fifteen native cultivars of date palm collected from south and southwest of Iran studied to determine their genetic affinity and allelic diversity by ISSR and RAPD-PCR molecular methods. For each cultivar, genomic DNA profiling of the five genotypes of each cultivars was carried out using 10 RAPD and 14 ISSR primers, exhibiting 132 and 162 amplicons, representing a level of polymorphism of 92.4% and 95.67%, respectively. The genetic relationships among cultivars were estimated in terms of similarity using Dice coefficients. The genetic similarity ranged from 94.5% to 99.3% and from 94.1% to 99.4% for RAPD and ISSR, respectively. Both types of markers showed the highest genetic similarity between Gantar and Deyri cultivars and similarly both type of markers showed highest genetic distance of Gantar and Deyriwith Khazravi and Kabkab cultivars. A dendrogram was constructed using NJ analysis. On the basis of this analysis, the populations were divided into four clusters. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that 95% (ISSR) and 97% (RAPD) of variability was partitioned among individuals within populations. These results represent the efficiency of ISSR and RAPD markers to evaluate genetic relationships of the date palm cultivars studied here.