Genetic Similarity of Pomegranate Genotypes Grown in Siirt Province.

Abstract

Siirt is famous with its pomegranate which is called Zivzik and is an important livelihood of the region. Zivzik pomegranate is a variety registered in 2008 and geographic sign studies are currently underway. Due to the genetic diversity of Siirt region, there are different genotypes not registered there yet. This is the first study carried out to investigate relationship status of Zivzik (Punica granatum L.) and Şirvan pomegranates by constructing the phylogenetic trees. 30 genotypes studied were numbered from 1 to 30 in our experiment. Four of 30 genotypes, which have different fruit characteristics from Zivzik variety, were included in the study. These four genotypes are called as Asili (Genotype 21), sour pomegranate (Genotype 22 and 23) and red pomegranate (Genotype 24). Neighbor Joining (NJ) and Bootstrap analysis were used to generate dendrogram showing the genetic relationship of Zivzik pomegranate, which is the most well-known genetic resource in Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The phylogenetic tree of genotypes indicated that genotypes 9, 18, 21, 6, 24 and 7; genotypes 17, 13, 12, 4 and 3 and genotypes 5, 8, 20, 11, 19, 2 and 27 were substantially similar. Genotypes 29, 16 and 14, in terms of physiological properties, were located at the furthest position on the phylogenetic tree from the other genotypes.