Seed storage protein electrophoretic profiles in some Iranian date palm (<i>Phoenix dactylifera</i> L.) cultivars

Abstract

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of the most important fruit crops in the south of Iran. However, little knowledge is currently available about the molecular characterization of date palm cultivars in this country. Determination of genetic variability and cultivar identification in date palm are two major important factors in breeding programs, characterization of germplasm, and conservation purposes. The genetic variation of seed proteins was assayed by SDS-PAGE for 12 cultivars in two regions; Bam and Jiroft in Iran. Seed proteins profiles were evaluated as a chemical character to clarify the taxonomic complexity and genetic variability in the cultivars. SDS-PAGE seed proteins electrophoregrams showed a range of peptides varying between 11.673 to 369 KDa. The relative similarity between cultivars were estimated by Jaccard’s similarity index and clustered in UPGMA and NJ for the mode of exposure. Cultivars distance in each region and ward minimum variance for the total of cultivars were moreover calculated. The cultivars from Bam and Jiroft were separated and this might have been done due to their unique genetic build-up. In order to make this assumption precise, data were computed to perform a PCA. Cluster analysis and PCA demonstrated their validity in establishing genetic diversity. When PCA was studied, the previously described results about ward's method clustering of Jaccard's similarity matrix were also visualized.

Key words: Cultivar identification, genetic variation, Phoenix dactylifera, SDS-PAGE, seed protein profile.