Genetic Relationship and Gene Stability Among Some Pomegranates (Punica granatum L.) Cultivars Cultured in Duhok Province, Iraq

Ibrahim, Diaa Ayoub; Esho, Lara Daniel; Danial, Gharbia Hirmiz

doi:10.58928/ku25.16403

	Genetic Relationship and Gene Stability Among Some Pomegranates (Punica granatum L.) Cultivars Cultured in Duhok Province, Iraq
Kirkuk University Journal for Agricultural Sciences (KUJAS)
Volume 16, Issue 4, December 2025, Pages 18-27 PDF (589.87 K)
Document Type: Research Paper
DOI: 10.58928/ku25.16403
Authors
Diaa Ayoub Ibrahim^* ¹; Lara Daniel Esho²; Gharbia Hirmiz Danial³
¹Scientific Research center, College of Science, Duhok University
²Biology department, College of Science, University of Duhok, Duhok, IRAQ
³Scientific Research Center, College of Science, University of Duhok, Duhok, IRAQ
Abstract
Abstract The study was conducted at the University of Duhok, College of Science, Department of Biology, from October 2021 to February 2023, focused on investigating the micropropagation and genetic diversity of seven pomegranates (Punica granatum L.) Masafik, Melisse, Radisho, Armishte, Shahraban, Halapja, and Dwarf. The experiments were conducted in the Plant Tissue Culture and Plant Molecular Laboratories at the Scientific Research Center (SRC), College of Science, University of Duhok,. The main aim of this study was to assess the genetic diversity, genetic relationships, and gene stability of the pomegranate cultivars being investigated, using Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) DNA markers. The results showed that only four tested SRAP primer combinations produced consistent and distinct polymorphic patterns in all 21 pomegranate genotypes, including the seven cultivars, the produced callus, and the regenerated plantlets formed from the callus. In the seven cultivars of Punica granatum, the combination of EM29-ME5 primers produced the highest number of banding patterns at 14, while primer EM29-ME17 produced only seven bands, totaling 42 bands. There were 3 monomorphic bands and 39 polymorphic bands, averaging 91.88%. The genetic relationship between species was determined using the calculated genetic distance, which ranged from the lowest value of 0.11989 between Armishte and Melisse to the highest value of 0.73162 between Melisse and Masafik. The dendrogram recognized three clusters for similarity between the cultivars. Thus, the study successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of PCR-SRAP markers in assessing the genetic diversity among various pomegranate cultivars. The analysis identified four reliable SRAP primer combinations that generated distinct polymorphic patterns across 21 genotypes, including multiple cultivars, callus tissue, and regenerated plantlets..
Keywords
SRAP; Pomegranate; genetic markers; micropropagation; PCR. SRAP; Punica granatu

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