Utility of Morphological Features, Chemical Composition of Fruit and Chloroplast Genes in Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Characterization of

Date palm, a dioecious evergreen woody tree of the Arecaceae family is an important fruit crop of Pakistan. In this study seven date palm cultivars (Dhaki, Aseel, Halawi, Qantar, Hamin wali, Kupra and Shakri) grown in Pakistan were characterized on the basis of seventeen morphological traits, five parameter of proximate composition of date fruit and sequence analysis of two genes (maturase k and geranyl geranyl biphosphate reductase) from chloroplast region. Analysis of variance has revealed significant variation among the studied date palm samples pertaining to the studied physical traits and chemical composition of fruit. Sequences of the maturase k gene has complete identity to the reference genome of ‘Khalas’ cultivar. While geranyl geranyl biphosphate reductase has one synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism in Qantar, Hamin wali, Kupra and Shakri, suggesting a lack of divergence in these genes in the studied cultivars. Tree plots generated showed inconsistencies in grouping of the cultivars thus showing no significant relationship of the plant morphology with the chemical composition of fruit.