E3 Journal of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research

E3 Journal of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 3 (3) pp. 47-53, May 2012; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2141-7474

Using ISSR markers to study genetic polymorphism of pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) in Algeria

Abstract

Pistacia vera L. is a widely represented tree in Algerian semi-arid regions. It is potentially usable to restore degraded ecosystems. Genetic relationship among the 10 variety was assessed by using six inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers. During the ISSR screening, good amplification products were obtained from primers based on guanine-adenine (GA), cytosine-adenine (CA) and GAA repeats. But primers based on cytosine-thyrosine (CT), and CAA repeats produced few large separate bands, so these primers were not selected for the final analysis. The total of 111 bands of which 60 (54.04 %) were polymorphic was amplified by the six primers, with an average of seven bands per primer. The total number of amplified fragments was between five to ten, and the number of polymorphic fragments ranged from four to seven. The range of genetic similarity was from 0.84 to 1 and the constructed unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA), dendrogram classified the tested genotypes into 2 main clusters. The present study showed that there is low genetic diversity among tested cultivars. The present study also showed that ISSR-PCR analysis is quick, reliable and produces sufficient polymorphisms for large-scale DNA fingerprinting purposes. This study reports the first application of the ISSR technique in characterization of Algerian pistachio cultivars original from Syria.

Keywords: Pistachio; Pistacia vera L.; Genetic relationships; DNA extraction; ISSR; Clustering.