Morphological and Molecular characterization of Pistacia atlantica Desf. in the South of Syria /Swaida Province/

Morphological and molecular characterization has been achieved for Pistacia atlantica Desf. genotypes, which are widely distributed in the south of Syria Sweida province . A total of 75 female genotypes from the studied population were sampled for this study. Their phenotypic appearance is highly variable. Hence, they were grouped into ten genotypes. Moreover, the continuing study signalled special two monoecious Pistacia atlantica Desf. genotypes having hermaphrodite flowers. The distribution of staminate and pistillate inflorescences was highly complex. So far, the genotype A10 was characterized by many different traits. We anticipated it as a progeny pertains to Pistacia eurycarpa species. Molecular characterization was achieved by using RAPD technique, Twenty- five 10-decamer primers were applied, 19 of them were able to characterize the studied genotypes where 253 DNA fragments were amplified, and 219 of them were polymorphic (86.6%). Cluster analysis was carried out using UPGMA method to develop genetic relationships among the ten genotypes. The cluster analysis showed a high genetic distance within the studied genotypes, and divided them into four clusters. The first cluster included 7 genotypes, while the other three clusters contained only one genotype for each one, which were A3, A10 and A1, respectively. A phenotypic characterization accompanied by RAPD markers, created the means to achieve an appropriate evolution of sampling germplasm