Biodiversity of some fig cultivars in Southern Syria

Abstract

This research has been conducted in the Biotechnology Laboratory in Damascus University_ Damascus, Syria where the genetic diversity of fourteen cultivars of figs (Ficus carica L.) growing in Swaida governorate which located in the south region of  Syria were investigated using (Simple Sequence Repeats) SSRs technique, where 4 cultivars of them were genotypes scattered in the local fields without any scientific taxonomy and farmers did not classify them properly. Eight pairs of SSRs markers were used depend on their ability to separate between fig cultivars as mentioned in previous studies, six pairs of them gave amplified products in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), while MFC3 and MFC6 primers did not give any amplification products. A total of 17 alleles were detected at six SSRs loci. The alleles number per locus ranged from 2 to 4 with  an average of 2.83 alleles/locus. The observed heterozygosity (Ho) was 0.33, while the expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.17. The mean value of genetic similarity was 0.69 where fig cultivars has separated into two clusters in Cluster Analysis, which confirms a significant genetic similarity between most of the cultivars. MFC1 and MFC2 loci gave about 0.67 and 0.61 PIC (Polymorphism Information Content) values respectively, which confirms their ability to study the genetic diversity of fig cultivars more than other loci. F1 and F2 cultivars greatly affect the quality of the fruits as paternity traits as Caprifigs. Tammozi cultivar has low values of its genetic similarity with the rest of the cultivars which reflect great difference between it and other cultivars. Generally, the challenges in this study were in characterizing unrecognized fig cultivars in southern Syria to distinguish between them as they were not certified in agriculture ministry in Syria because the lack in studies related to the same topic as these cultivars were not studied before, thus, we managed to make a significant contribution in certifying fig cultivars in Syria using SSR technique.