Micromorphological and genetic molecular variations in some taxa of asteraceae and its importance as grazing plants

Abstract

The present study used Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker and scanning electron microscope (SEM) for achene surface to characterize and detect morphological and genetical molecular markers in 15 taxa of family Asteraceae collected from Al-Jouf and Al-Ula regions in the northern of Saudi Arabia and give attention to the importance of this family as grazing plants. The results of achene surface showed great differences between studied taxa and gave important criteria to characterize them. RAPD analysis scored molecular genetic markers that helped to characterize and detect variation between studied taxa. Primers produced a total of 105 bands of which 59 were species specific markers. The dendrogram generated by combination between RAPD polymorphism and achene scanning electron microscope features produced a clear view about the genetic relationship between studied taxa of Asteraceae.