Affiliation:
1. Biofuels Institute, School of Emergency Management, School of the Environment and Safety Engineering Jiangsu University Zhenjiang Jiangsu China
2. Environmental Epigenetics and Genetics Group, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment University of Kentucky United States of America
3. Department of Botany Hazara University Mansehra Mansehra KP Pakistan
4. Department of Pharmacognosy; College of Pharmacy King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia
5. Department of Surgery, College of Medicine King Saud University P.O.Box 7805 Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
AbstractThe Ziziphus genus, belonging to the Rhamnaceae family, holds significant economic, nutritional, and medicinal value. However, much remains to be discovered about its diversity and physical characteristics. Factors such as growth, resilience to changes, disease resistance, and unique features contribute to the quality of Ziziphus species. This study aims to investigate the genomes of 200 genotypes from five Ziziphus species: Ziziphus jujuba (Zj), Ziziphus nummularia (Zm), Ziziphus oxyphylla (Zx), Ziziphus mauritiana (Zm), and the cultivated variety Ziziphus jujube var. jujube, collected from Pakistan and China. Our goal is to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with eight different traits and understand the genetic diversity within the selected Ziziphus species and their genotypes. Using high‐quality SNPs obtained through genotype‐by‐sequencing (GBS), we conducted population structure, phylogenetic, and principal coordinates analyses, identifying a total of 10,945 clean SNPs. These genotypes were categorized into two groups, A and B. Natural Ziziphus variants in Pakistan, specifically Z. jujuba and Z. nummularia, exhibited high levels of genetic diversity and polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.46 and 0.41, respectively, compared to other species. Furthermore, we identified 15 influential candidate genes that play crucial roles in regulating agronomic traits, such as fruit width and diameter, leaf width, plant height, and stem diameter within this group. This study provides valuable insights that can be utilized in Ziziphus breeding efforts.