Abstract:
Morphological and RAPD markers were used to investi
gate the genetic diversity among
21 accessions of pomegranate originating from South
Eastern Tunisia. Thirteen
morphological traits were studied and results showe
d significant differences for all
morphological characters (P< 0.001). Clustering bas
ed on fruit traits, using Ward’s
method, divided the accessions into three main grou
ps. In RAPD analysis, 6 out of 15
employed random primers showed good amplification a
nd polymorphism on
pomegranate samples with a total of 63 bands, of wh
ich 56 were polymorphic. The lowest
percentage of polymorphism (50%) was observed with
TIBMBA-03 while the highest
(50%) was observed with primer TIBMBB-03. According
to Jaccard coefficient, the
lowest (0.29) and highest (0.94) similarities were
detected between genotypes. UPGMA
clustering based on data from polymorphic RAPD band
s resulted in three clusters at a
similarity of 0.46. The Stress value for the nonmet
ric multidimensional scaling plot was
0.071, showing an excellent representation of the d
ata. The comparison between
groupings based on the fruit traits and RAPD data d
id not produce a significant
correlation (r= -0.09). Using a stepwise linear reg
ression, significant regressions were
found between 13 morphological traits and 63 molecu
lar markers revealing association
between RAPD molecular markers and some traits.
Keywords:
Morphology, Random primers, Fruit traits, RAPD mar
kers, Regression association.
