SEED STORAGE PROTEINS PROFILING OF PAKISTANI DATE PALM (PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA L.) CULTIVARS FOR ESTIMATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY THROUGH SDS-PAGE

Date palm (2n=36) is a dioecious monocotyledonous plant belonging to the highly heterogeneous and variable Arecaceae family. In irrigable desert areas date palm cannot be replaced due to its capability to withstand the unfavorable conditions where other fruit crops cannot survive. For date palm breeding, cultivar identification and diversity assesment are important factors. Genetic variations of 15 cultivars were assayed by SDS-PAGE from three different areas of Pakistan. It was credible to check the genetic variability and taxonomic convolution using seed protein profiling. Performance of seed storage protein revealed that Dedi (De) and Dhaki (Dh) were more divergent for exploring genetic diversity comparatively to other date palm cultivars. Begum jangi (Bj) and Khudrawi (Khu) were found different but Aseel and Toto were very closely related. Dendrogram based on electrophoretic analysis clusterd the date palm genotypes into 4 groups. The lowest similarity coefficient was among Assel, Muzawati and Haleeni (0.15) that revealed a distant relationship among these cultivars while the highest similarity was observed among Zaidi, Shamran and Eaden Shah (0.85). All cultivars were grouped on the basis of level of similarity and relatedness.