Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Five Cultivars of Ziziphus spp. Cultivated in Southern Iraq

Abstract

Ziziphus spp. is one of the economic fruit trees whose cultivation spreads in southern Iraq. This study characterized the morphological, molecular, and genetic diversity of five cultivars (Malasy, Normal, Zaytony, Bambawi, Tofahy), using 12 morphological indicators for leaf and fruit and six primers for RAPD technology. The results of the morphological characterization showed that the two cultivars (Normal and Malasy) recorded the highest genetic kinship between them, amounting to 10.04. In comparison, the farthest genetic distance between the two cultivars (Zaytony and Normal) was recorded, which amounted to 29.3. As for the molecular characterization results, the primers produced 113 20 bands, with an average of 18.8 bands for each primer, and the percentage of polymorphism was 100% and unique bands totaling 51 bands appeared, including 17 bands with different molecular weights characteristic of the cultivars. The genetic tree diagram showed the distribution of cultivars in two groups. The combination of morphological and molecular characterization is one of the most important tools that can be relied upon in finding genetic differences and determining fingerprints, especially between types of genders or cultivars of the same species. Keywords: fingerprints, genetic distance, Morphological, RAPD, Ziziphus.