Genetic Diversity of Egyptian Date Palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Using Morphological and Molecular Markers

Abstract

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of the most ancient cultivated fruit crops belong to family Arecaceae. It is mainly grown in the arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa (Barrow, 1998;Zohary and Hopf, 2000;Chao and Krueger, 2007). Egypt is the world's largest date palm average yield producers, representing about 20% of global production (FAO, 2014). Biodiversity conservation of date palm is a crucial concern to maintain the diverse number of date palm cultivars in Egypt (Rizk et al., 2004). Progress in any genetic conservation scheme relies on understanding the genetic variation existing in the gene pool (