Assessing Genetic Relationships between Pistacia vera L. Hybrids and their Parents (P. vera × Monoecious Genotypes of P. atlantica) Using SSR Markers

Genetic relationships among two species of the genus Pistacia (2 cultivars of Pistacia vera Ashouri and Batouri as female parents, 3 monoecious genotypes of Pistacia atlantica PA12, PA35, and PA37 as donators of pollen grains, and their progenies “F1, 6 types” as an interspecific hybrids) was studied using 15 specific SSRs primer pairs, 14 of them were able to amplify PCR products. Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) segregation produced 40 putative alleles, of which 36 were polymorphic (90%). Genetic similarity among all studied genotypes ranged from 0.24 to 0.96. Whereas, Genetic similarity between the hybrids and their parents were closer to their female parents than to their male parents except for the hybrid HB3; which revealed genetic distances 0.37 with its female parent (FB) and 0.43 with its male parent (PA35). The UPGMA cluster plots based on Jaccard’s coefficient grouped the genotypes into two main clusters. The number of alleles revealed by each SSR analysis ranged from 1 to 8, with a high level of expected heterozygosity (He) 0.49. A co-dominant SSRs was observed in some loci in the studied progenies giving a value 0.21 of observed heterozygosity (Ho). Marker Index (MI) was 17.64. These results suggested that the primer pairs Ptms-7, EPVM021, EPVM016, and EPVF019 may form the platform to detect sex expression in the genus Pistacia. Our results also established the value of SSR markers for distinguishing lineage genetic studies in the Pistacia spp.