DETECTION OF ISSR MARKERS LINKED TO SEED OIL CONTENT OF JOJOBA PLANTS (Simmondsia chinensis) CULTIVATED IN EGYPT

Jojoba has become a significant plant due to its precious seed oil with numerous applications. In an attempt to explore the genetic variation and the association with different traits, ISSR analysis was conducted for the selected Jojoba clones. In the present study, sixteen Jojoba plants (clones) including 1 male and 15 female clone were selected to conduct this experiment. Ten ISSR primers were used in this study. The analysis of oil content in the seeds revealed that one plant (GIADC2) contain up to 55.93% oil, which is quite high percentage. Increasing in oil content and seed weight is not always related to each other. ISSR analysis revealed 61 monomorphic bands, where, the maximum number of monomorphic bands (9) was generated by the ISSR-3, while the lowest (1) produced by the ISSR-9. However, the total number of polymorphic bands was 70. The percentage of polymorphism was ranged from 20% (ISSR-20) to 91% (ISSR-9) with average 52.6%. The dendrogram showed two main clusters; the first main cluster has grouped three Jojoba genotypes (5, 10 and 15). While the second main cluster was divided into two sub-clusters; one sub-cluster contain 10 clones (4, 6, 8, 12, 9, 14, male, 13, 1 and 11) and the other sub-cluster contained three Jojoba clones (2, 7 and 3). The association of ISSR marker with oil content revealed that ISSR-01, ISSR-08 and ISSR-19 were associated with oil content. On the hand, the association of ISSR marker with seed weight revealed that ISSR-01, ISSR-04, ISSR-05, ISSR-09, ISSR-19 and ISSR-20 primers were associated. Finally, molecular marker such as ISSR markers is important in trait marker association study for improving plant cultivars.