Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a member of the Punicaceae family native to the arid and semi-arid regions of Iran and northern India, and nowadays is cultivated throughout several areas of the Mediterranean basin and in countries such as USA, Australia, Chile. The popularity of this tree is increasing among growers and consumers due to the nutritive value and nutraceutical properties of the fruit and its adaptability to different soils and climate conditions. Pomegranate is characterized by a very wide diversity in terms of cultivated, wild and ornamental genotypes, and in terms of morphological traits like skin colour and sugar/acid content of its arils. However, still very little genomic information is available on this fruit tree, due to limited research. Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers have successfully proved to be a powerful tool for assessing genetic variation and establishing phylogenetic relationships in many plant species, due to their high polymorphism, abundance and co-dominance inheritance. The aim of this work was to exploit the potential of SSRs to molecularly characterize pomegranate genotypes, and to carry out a genetic diversity study on a set of different accessions collected in Southern Italy and Israel. For the genetic analysis, DNA polymorphism among pomegranate genotypes was investigated by using a total of 39 SSR primer combinations. The primer pairs gave a total of 87 alleles, with a number of alleles per locus ranging from 1 to 4. Out of these, 41% turned out to be monomorphic and were not able to distinguish the different pomegranate varieties, while 59% showed a polymorphic pattern in the selected genotypes. Genetic similarity and distance were estimated by a dendogram based upon the UPGMA method. In the tree, italian and israelian pomegranate genotypes were divided into different clusters, and clustering was mostly performed according to their geographical origin, in most cases correlated with their morphological traits (skin colour and juice taste). This work clearly demonstrated the ability of SSR markers to detect genetic polymorphism and establishing phylogenetic relationships among pomegranate genotypes. The study is now going on by testing some more markers suitable not only for the varietal characterization of this species, but also to promote conservation and sustainable utilization of this very promising fruit tree species.
EVALUATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY IN A COLLECTION OF WILD AND DOMESTIC POMEGRANATE (PUNICA GRANATUM L.) GENOTYPES
GIANCASPRO A;
2013-01-01
Abstract
Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a member of the Punicaceae family native to the arid and semi-arid regions of Iran and northern India, and nowadays is cultivated throughout several areas of the Mediterranean basin and in countries such as USA, Australia, Chile. The popularity of this tree is increasing among growers and consumers due to the nutritive value and nutraceutical properties of the fruit and its adaptability to different soils and climate conditions. Pomegranate is characterized by a very wide diversity in terms of cultivated, wild and ornamental genotypes, and in terms of morphological traits like skin colour and sugar/acid content of its arils. However, still very little genomic information is available on this fruit tree, due to limited research. Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers have successfully proved to be a powerful tool for assessing genetic variation and establishing phylogenetic relationships in many plant species, due to their high polymorphism, abundance and co-dominance inheritance. The aim of this work was to exploit the potential of SSRs to molecularly characterize pomegranate genotypes, and to carry out a genetic diversity study on a set of different accessions collected in Southern Italy and Israel. For the genetic analysis, DNA polymorphism among pomegranate genotypes was investigated by using a total of 39 SSR primer combinations. The primer pairs gave a total of 87 alleles, with a number of alleles per locus ranging from 1 to 4. Out of these, 41% turned out to be monomorphic and were not able to distinguish the different pomegranate varieties, while 59% showed a polymorphic pattern in the selected genotypes. Genetic similarity and distance were estimated by a dendogram based upon the UPGMA method. In the tree, italian and israelian pomegranate genotypes were divided into different clusters, and clustering was mostly performed according to their geographical origin, in most cases correlated with their morphological traits (skin colour and juice taste). This work clearly demonstrated the ability of SSR markers to detect genetic polymorphism and establishing phylogenetic relationships among pomegranate genotypes. The study is now going on by testing some more markers suitable not only for the varietal characterization of this species, but also to promote conservation and sustainable utilization of this very promising fruit tree species.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
