Determination of RAPD markers related to plant height in pomegranate (Punica granatum L. and P. nana L.) and some morphological observations

The objective this study was to determine the markers related to plant height using PCR-RAPD method. As a plant material, dwarf and normal pomegranate parents and their hybrids were used in hybridization breeding and self-breeding methods located in ADU Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture. In the plant height measurements made in 2020; the height of the shortest and longest plant, respectively, was in the hybridization of P. nana × P. granatum, out of 52 plants, 129 cm and 250 cm; in P. nana selfing, out of 44 plants, 59 cm and 154 cm; in P. granatum selfing, out of 2 plants 172 cm and 174 cm; and female parent was 110 cm and male parent was 396 cm. DNA was extracted from the leaves of a total of 16 samples together with the parents. In order to test the RAPD primers, BSA was created using equal amounts of DNA of two different groups corresponding to the height of the hybrid plants. Among the 120 RAPD primers tested, the persistant bands gave polymorphisms in the bulks assessed in the further study which each individual and both parents tested for polymorphisms. The 650 bp band obtained from the OPM07 primer was not observed in the female parent, dwarf pomegranate bulk and self-pollinated dwarf plants, but that was observed in the male parent, normal height pomegranate bulk and the four normal height pomegranate hybrids. As a result of this study, OPM07-650 RAPD marker was able to determine 57% of the polymorphism in plant height characteristic in pomegranate.