Assessment of phylogenetic diversity and relationships among <i>Grewia tenax</i> population in Sudan using RAPD and ISSR molecular markers

Abstract

<abstract> <p>This research is conducted to study the genetic diversity of the genus <italic>Grewia tenax</italic> in Sudan. This plant has a common vernacular Sudanese Arabic name: “Gudeim”. It is mainly cultivated in North Darfur and Western Sudan. Common uses of <italic>Grewia</italic> species were overviewed in areas of nutrition, folk medicine and famine food. The genetic variation and genetic relationships among <italic>Grewia spp</italic> populations from different regions were efficiently determined using RAPD and ISSR markers.</p> <p>The results of genetic analysis were statistically analyzed by STATISTCA and GenALEx 6.5 software. The results of molecular variance revealed that 74% of total genetic diversity was due to within populations variations as opposed to 26% due to variations between populations unweighted pair- group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA) were constructed for and RAPD + ISSR. The UPGMA results showed variability of <italic>Grewia</italic> genotypes.</p> <p>It was concluded that both the marker systems RAPD and ISSR combination can be effectively used in determination of genetic relationships among <italic>Grewia tenax</italic> genotypes.</p> </abstract>