Abstract:
The present study was conducted on five ber (Ziziphus
mauritiana Lamk) cultivars (Komethry, Pakstany, Um-sulaem, Toffahy
and Peyuan) grown in Saudi Arabia during 2005 and 2006 seasons. The aim
of the present study was to investigate fruit properties (fruit weight,
length, diameter, shape, specific gravity, seed weight, pulp percentage,
total soluble solids (TSS), acidity percentage, TSS/acid, vitamin C content
total, reducing and non-reducing sugars). Peyuan cv. had the heaviest
fruit weight, fruit volume and reducing sugar content however, it was
the lowest in pulp percentage and non-reducing sugars among the five cultivars
in both seasons. Toffahy cv. had highest fruit diameter and seed weight
while, had lowest TSS %, vitamin C and total sugars values. Um-sulaem
cv. had highest acidity percentage and vitamin C content and lowest fruit
weight, length and TSS/acid. On the other hand, Pakstany cv. had highest
percentage of both pulp percentage, TSS, total and non-reducing sugars.
Finally, Komethry had the longest fruit. The molecular characterization
and fingerprint identification of the ber cultivars was conducted using
the ISSR (Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats) technique. The ISSR technique
was able to uniquely characterize and differentiate between the five ber
genotypes. Moreover, the genetic similarity tree showed that the cultivar
Um-slaem is genetically distant from the other four cultivars and the
two cultivars Pakstany and Komethry were genetically identical.
R.S. Obeed, M.M. Harhash and A.L. Abdel-Mawgood, 2008. Fruit Properties and Genetic Diversity of Five Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk) Cultivars. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences, 11: 888-893.
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