Assessment of genetic diversity in some Chenopodiaceae plants

 Chenopodiaceae, one of the largest plant families, which varies morphologically, is diverse in 
number and ecogeographically distributed mainly in Mediterranean and Egyptian Sahara, extending 
far into adjacent regions. In Egypt, previous studies on Chenopodiaceae had focused mainly on 
anatomy, taxonomy, physiology, morphology, genome description and medicinal values, which are 
insufficient for genetic affinities and very little for genetic diversity studies. Biochemical variability 
was studied by protein and isozymes electrophoretic patterns among Chenopodiaceae eight 
genotypes from different habitats. The molecular markers RAPD and ISSR were used to estimate the 
polymorphism among these genotypes. Somatic chromosome numbers were examined for karyotype 
analysis among the Chenopodiaceae eight studied genotypes. Sixteen protein bands generated 15 
polymorphic bands with 94% polymorphism. Eight isozyme systems including ACPH, ADH, α-EST, 
β-EST, AO, MDH, SOD and POD revealed 34 total bands (94% polymorphism). RAPD revealed a 
total of 125 (93% of polymorphism) and nine ISSR primers revealed the highest total of 201 bands 
with the highest polymorphism (95%). Based on similarity matrix of overall analysis (protein, 
isozymes, RAPD and ISSR) the dendrogram was constructed and separated the eight 
Chenopodiaceae genotypes into two main clusters. The first included the genotypes Chenopodium 
album, Spinacia oleraceae and Anabasis setifera, while the second included Salicornia fruticosa 
genotypes. ISSR was better than RAPD to detect genetic diversity among Chenopodiaceae genera 
and species. The RAPD’s and ISSR’s have confirmed each other. Somatic chromosome number was 
2n=18, n=9 for all species except Spinacia oleraceae was 2n=12, n= 6. The outcome of this 
investigation can help strengthen the exiting pool of information on Chenopodiaceae species that 
may help assess national conservation programs in Egypt and may help in assessing breeding 
programs to get benefit from valuable stress tolerance genes for the improvement of crops.