Morphological and Molecular Characrerization of Wild Pomegranate (Punica Granatum l.)Genotypes to Estimate the Genetic Diversity Through Ssr Markers Collected From District Dir Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract The pomegranate (Punica graatum L.) is an local fruit of Pakistan, having a long history of cultivation as wild plant in warm temperate Himalayan range of the country; however its production is quite low to meet ever increasing market demand. Sustainable production of high quality pomegranate fruit in the world has been achieved through morphogenetic characterization and estimation of genotypes diversity. Thus, it is important to estimate morphological, and genetic diversity of wild pomegranate. In the present study 50 genotypes of wild pomegranate were collected from District Dir and estimated for eight morphological traits and randomly selected 18 genotypes out of 50 genotypes for molecular characterization by applying six SSR marker for estimation of genetic diversity. In this study eight morphological characters two qualitative and six quantitative trait were used for the determination of genetic diversity. Analysis of variance revealed that significant variations were found in fruit length and fruit width in PC4, PC5 and PC6. The principal component analysis of six quantitative variables revealed a total variation of (100%) with an Eigenvalue of 0.167%. PC1 has a total variation of 31.548%, PC2 has 19.054%, PC3 has 16.483%, PC4 has 15.85%, PC5 has 11.827% variation while PC6 has 5.237%. Cluster based analysis of six quantitative traits of wild pomegranate using ward method and all genotypes were divided into two linkage groups A at 33% genetic distance and B at 67% genetic distance. The genotypes P1 and P28 being the most diversified and is found at the extreme periphery of the Dendrogram. The highest genetic diversity was observed by primer pgSSR25 (0.85) and minimum gene diversity was recorded by primer PgSSR19 (0.500) a mean PIC value 0.70. Overall primers considerably diverse between all genotypes. The present result revealed superior genotypes, as P1, P2, P25 and P28 both morphogenaticaly which can be used as parents that certainly increase the chance of obtaining desirable genotypes in a breeding program. Moreover present results revealed that the both morphological characterization and molecular characterization provide a powerful tool for the estimation of genetic variations existing among the genotypes of Wild pomegranate This studies provide basic information for morphological and molecular diversity programs to develop new cultivars to enhance the production of high quality pomegranate with desirable traits in Pakistan.