Monitoring of cultivar identity in tissue culture-derived date palms using RAPD and AFLP analysis

In the present study, two polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods namely, randomly amplified polymophic DNA (RAPD) and amplification fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were employed to assess genetic variations, which may appeared, in tissue culture-derived date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) offshoots. Analysis of RAPD banding patterns generated by PCR amplification using 37 random primers gave no evidences for somaclonal variations and the percentage of polymorphic bands in a total of 259 scored bands was zero. Meanwhile, analysis of AFLP banding patterns generated using 13 primer combinations pointed to minor genetic variations in the AFLP banding patterns. The percentage of genetic variations (polymorphism) in tissue culture-derived date palm offshoots belonging to cultivars Sakkoty, Gandila and Bertamoda was 2.6, 0.79 and 1 %, respectively, as revealed by AFLP analysis. The low percentage of genetic variations confirms the genetic stability of tissue culture-derived dry date palm cultivars.