MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL GENETIC IDENTIFICATION OF THREE FEMALE EGYPTIAN CAROB (Ceratonia siliqua L.) STRAINS

The present study was carried out on three top wedge grafted eight year old female carob strains during 2016 and 2017 seasons. Vegetative growth, blooming, yield, fruit and seed characteristics as well as pod chemical contents were estimated. The results showed that strain 3 significantly scored the highest leaf length, leaflet length and leaflet width while strain 2 showed higher leaflet L/W ratio. Regarding blooming characteristics, strain 3 significantly surpassed the other strains in the number of flowers/inflorescence, inflorescence length and the number of flowers/cm. In both seasons, strain 1 was significantly the highest regarding average No. of seeds/pod, average weight of seeds/pod, seeds/pod percentage, total sugars, total phenols and fiber percentages, while strain 2 had greater protein content. Nevertheless strain 3 was significantly superior concerning yield, pod length, pod width, pod weight, pulp weight and vitamin C content. ISSR markers were able to distinguish the genetic diversity among the carob strains. The highest similarity index was recorded between strain 1 and strain 2 and also between strain 2 and strain 3, while strain 3 proved to be genetically far from strain 1.