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Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Native and Introduced Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Germplasm in the United Arab Emirates

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Abstract

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) has been cultivated since ancient times, but little is known about its genetic diversity and population structure. Examination of 80 date palm accessions grown in the United Arab Emirates, including a collection of varieties from around the world, using 21 microsatellite markers, indicated extensive genetic diversity, with many accessions heterozygous for most markers. The average number of alleles per locus (19), expected heterozygosity (0.7), observed heterozygosity (0.25) and fixation indices (Fst = 0.6, Rst = 0.72) demonstrated significant population structure. Analysis with a model-based Baysian method, STRUCTURE 2.4.1, indicated that the 80 accessions could be broadly divided into nine groups. Independent samples of genotypes with the same name, collected from different experimental stations, usually clustered together. The study was enriched for germplasm from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and one STRUCTURE-derived grouping consisted mainly of UAE accessions. In a few other clusters, several genotypes from the UAE, Iraq and Oman grouped together. Two clusters included accessions from both North Africa and the Middle East. Many accessions in the STRUCTURE-derived populations appeared to be genetic admixtures. The results indicated a broad dissemination of related germplasms across date-palm growing regions of the world, with very few alleles that still correlate with particular regional germplasms.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded through UAE National Research Foundation (NRF) grant No. RSA - 1108 – 00479 (UAE University No. 31F002) and by endowment funds from the University of Georgia Giles Professorship and the Georgia Research Alliance. The authors highly appreciate the cooperation of the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water for providing the date palm samples from its research stations as well as the expertise of its scientists. The authors are grateful to undergraduate student Ms. Shamma Al-mansouri for her assistance in the lab work at UAE University and for providing date palm samples from her family’s private farm. The authors also thank Jeff Wagner at the University of Georgia for assistance with SSR gel analysis, and also Stephan Schroder and Katrien Devos for their assistance with analysis of SSR data.

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Author notes

  1. Mohammed A. M. Aly

    Present address: Department of Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

  2. Sakina Khanam

    Present address: Crop Physiology Division, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, Mymensingh, 2200, Bangladesh

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, C424 Davison Life Sciences Building, Athens, GA, USA

    Srinivasa R. Chaluvadi & Jeffrey L. Bennetzen

  2. Department of Aridland Agriculture, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, United Arab Emirates University, P. O. Box 17555, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Sakina Khanam & Mohammed A. M. Aly

Authors
  1. Srinivasa R. Chaluvadi
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  2. Sakina Khanam
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  3. Mohammed A. M. Aly
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  4. Jeffrey L. Bennetzen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey L. Bennetzen.

Additional information

Communicated by: Hongwei Cai

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Fig. S1

Population structure analysis using STRUCTURE 2.40. A) Determination of the most appropriate value of K for STRUCTURE analysis of 75 samples of date palm collected from the UAE. Following analysis using STRUCTURE v 2.4, the best K value was calculated by Structure Harvester. B) Structure based neighbor joining tree showing relative distances between inferred clusters. C) Populations derived from STRUCTURE analysis are color-coded. Each accession is represented by a vertical bar, each of which is marked to denote place of initial collection. Iraq (I), Iran (N), Oman (O), Saudi Arabia (S) and UAE (U). Wherever, there was confusion about place of origin in the literature (Ghaleb 2008), multiple countries of origin are indicated on those bars. The length of each colored segment in each vertical bar represents the proportion contributed by each structure group. (JPEG 90 kb)

High resolution image (TIFF 735 kb)

ESM 1

S1a. Fixation indices (Fst, Fis and Fit), number of migrant alleles (Nm) were calculated as follows. Fst = AP/(WI + AI + AP), Fis = AI/(WI + AI), Rit = (AI + AP)/(WI + AI + AP), Nm = [(1/Fst) − 1]/4. AP = Estimated VAR variability Among Populations, AI = Estimated Variability Among Individuals, WI = Estimated Variability Within Individuals. S1b. Pair-wise Fst values (below diagonal) and pair-wise Fst P-values (above diagonal) of date palm populations included in the current study. P values are based on 999 permutations. (DOC 35 kb)

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Chaluvadi, S.R., Khanam, S., Aly, M.A.M. et al. Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Native and Introduced Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) Germplasm in the United Arab Emirates. Tropical Plant Biol. 7, 30–41 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-014-9135-7

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