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Endemic insular and coastal Tunisian date palm genetic diversity

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Abstract

The breeding of crop species relies on the valorisation of ancestral or wild varieties to enrich the cultivated germplasm. The Tunisian date palm genetic patrimony is being threatened by diversity loss and global climate change. We have conducted a genetic study to evaluate the potential of spontaneous coastal resources to improve the currently exploited Tunisian date palm genetic pool. Eighteen microsatellite loci of Phoenix dactylifera L. were used to compare the genetic diversity of coastal accessions from Kerkennah, Djerba, Gabès and continental date palm accessions from Tozeur. A collection of 105 date palms from the four regions was analysed. This study has provided us with an extensive understanding of the local genetic diversity and its distribution. The coastal date palm genotypes exhibit a high and specific genetic diversity. These genotypes are certainly an untapped reservoir of agronomically important genes to improve cultivated germplasm in continental date palm.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Abdelmajid Rhouma for kindly providing date palm leaf material. This work was financed by the AUF MeRSi project (6313PS001), the Tunisian Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique. This study has been made possible by grant NPRP-EP X-014-4-001 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation). In memory of our colleague Jean-Christophe Pintaud who preciously contributed to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de génétique moléculaire immunologie et biotechnologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, Campus Universitaire, 2092, El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia

    Salwa Zehdi-Azouzi, Emira Cherif, Karim Guenni, Ahmed Ben Abdelkrim, Aymen Bermil, Soumaya Rhouma & Amel Salhi Hannachi

  2. IRD, UMR DIADE F2F and DYNADIV Teams, 911 Av. Agropolis, BP 64501, 34394, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Emira Cherif, Jean Christophe Pintaud & Frédérique Aberlenc-Bertossi

  3. Centre Régional de Recherche en Agriculture Oasienne, 2260, Degueche, Tunisia

    Mohamed Ben Salah

  4. INRA, UMR 1097 Diversité et Adaptation des Plantes Cultivées, 2 Place Viala, 34060, Montpellier Cedex 1, France

    Sylvain Santoni

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  1. Salwa Zehdi-Azouzi
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  2. Emira Cherif
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  3. Karim Guenni
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  4. Ahmed Ben Abdelkrim
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  7. Mohamed Ben Salah
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  9. Jean Christophe Pintaud
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  10. Frédérique Aberlenc-Bertossi
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Correspondence to Salwa Zehdi-Azouzi.

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Zehdi-Azouzi, S., Cherif, E., Guenni, K. et al. Endemic insular and coastal Tunisian date palm genetic diversity. Genetica 144, 181–190 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-016-9888-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-016-9888-z

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