MOLECULAR POLYMORPHISMS IN TUNISIAN FIGS (FICUS CARICA) MEDIATED BY MICROSATELLITES

Fig (Ficus carica L.) is very well adapted to Tunisian climate and it spreads from the North to the South of the country.
In spite of the high number of local varieties, cultivation of fig remained sporadic.
In this study microsatellites were used to identify molecular polymorphisms between two Tunisian fig collections located in the south of the country in order to evaluate genetic diversity and to face the genetic erosion that is threatening this plant.
Significant genetic diversity was observed among the analysed cultivars belonging to the collections.
In fact, data analysis showed that the intra-collection variation was more important than the inter-collection one.
According to their resolving power (which ranged from 2.12 to 3.87) the used microsatellites primers were very efficient for fig genetic diversity studies and for varietal identification.
A key of identification for the 16 cultivars studied was established.
This result will be very convenient to set up a Tunisian catalogue describing fig cultivars.

III International Symposium on Fig

O. Saddoud, K. Chatti, M. Trifi, M. Marrakchi, A. Salhi-Hannachi, M. Mars

Ficus carica L., microsatellites, molecular polymorphism

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.798.24