COMPARATIVE BOTANICAL AND GENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF CERTAIN SOLANUM SPECIES GROWN IN EGYPT

Objective: Urgent need for proper identification and characterization has emerged for some Solanum species as their toxicity to humans and animals ranges from mildly irritating to fatal. The objective of this work was targeted towards discrimination between Solanum seaforthianum Andrews and Solanum macrocarpon L. Methods: For establishment of different botanical and genetic criteria, this study presents a comparative investigation of the botanical features of the roots, stems and leaves of both plants through microscopical investigation of the prepared entire, transverse sections and powdered forms of different organs of both plants under study. Furthermore, the DNA of both plants was extracted from leaf samples and Random Amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis using ten primers of arbitrary sequences. Results: Comparative botanical characters of different organs were identified. On the other hand a total 101 fragments were generated in S. macrocarpon while 105 fragments were generated in S. seaforthianum . Where the highest degree of similarities (70%) was recorded using primer B16 therefore could be used as an indicator for obtaining genetic markers, followed by 65.38% for Z13 and the lowest degree of similarity (38.1%) was recorded using primer O14 which could be used to discriminate between the two Solanum species depending on their low values of similarity coefficients and high level of polymorphism. Conclusion: For the present study, macro and micro-morphological characters, as well as, DNA fingerprinting can be considered as the identifying parameters to authenticate and differentiate between the two plants under study.