Evaluation of Some Date Palm Male Types Using Morphological and Molecular Markers

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

FIVE LOCATIONS of mature male palm trees belong to three …...governorates (Alexandria, Behira and Sohage) were subjected to evaluate some physical characteristics and certain chemical constituents to determine a superior type as promising ones for pollinating the female flowers to incorporate those types in the breeding programs.
It is obvious that locations of El-Behira governorate recorded almost the highest value for morphological characteristics. The same trend was observed for pollen viability and mineral content. The Tahta location which belongs to sohage governorate usually showed a high content of carbohydrates. On the other hand, males of Rasheed (El-Behira governorate) recorded the highest protein percentages. However, there were no significant differences between those males and the other males that grown in the rest of locations. Amino acids content varied from one location to another. Moreover, one primer of RAPD marker (OPC 13) has the potential to identify three genotypes and only four primers have the ability to characterize four genotypes.

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