Analysis of the Morphological Diversity of  Inflorescence of Six Tunisian Date Palm  (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Pollinators

Six Tunisian date palm pollinators were morphologically characterized at the inflorescence level. The aim was to assess the level of similarity between the spathe of the three flowering stages. Nineteen qualitative and quantitative characteristics were explored and subjected to multivariate analyzes. The results showed that inflorescences morphological similarity oscillated between 97.9 and 62.2% with an average of 80.1%, which testifies strong genetic relations among the six genotypes and among flowering stages/cycles within each genotype. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) analysis shows that weight of the spathe (SW), number of spathe (NS), shape of spathe (SS), total length of the spathe (TLS), shape of spikelets (SPS), number of spikelets per spathe (NS), These characteristics are defined by axis 1 and 2 which absorbing a total of 56.3% of total variability. Phylogenetic relationship analysis showed that two groups were distinguished by a high level of genetic similarity of inflorescences at each flowering stage. According to the analysis, the second flowering stage is the most distinguished morphologically with the highest sizes of the quantitative characteristics studied.

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Spectroscopic and Molecular Methods to Differentiate Gender in Immature Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants10030536 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 536

Author(s):

Abdul Latif Khan ◽

Ahmed Al-Harrasi ◽

Muhammad Numan ◽

Noor Mazin AbdulKareem ◽

Fazal Mabood ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Date Palm ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Sex Differentiation ◽

Principal Component ◽

Phoenix Dactylifera ◽

Partial Least Square ◽

Least Square ◽

Transcript Accumulation ◽

Near Infrared Reflectance ◽

Phoenix Dactylifera L

Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) is a well-known nutritious and economically important fruit tree found in arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa. Being diploid, it has extremely high divergence in gender, where sex differentiation in immature date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) has remained an enigma in recent years. Herein, new robust infrared (near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) and Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflectance (FTIR/ATR)) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy methods coupled with extensive chemometric analysis were used to identify the sex differentiation in immature date palm leaves. NIRS/FTIR reflectance and 1H-NMR profiling suggested that the signals of monosaccharides (glucose and fructose) and/or disaccharides (maltose and sucrose) play key roles in sex differentiation. The three kinds of spectroscopic data were clearly differentiated among known and unknown male and female leaves via principal component and partial least square discriminant analyses. Furthermore, sex-specific genes and molecular markers obtained from the lower halves of LG12 chromosomes showed enhanced transcript accumulation of mPdIRDP52, mPdIRDP50, and PDK101 in females compared with in males. The phylogeny showed that the mPdIRD033, mPdIRD031, and mPdCIR032 markers formed distinctive clades with more than 70% similarity in gender differentiation. The three robust analyses provide an alternative tool to differentiate sex in date palm trees, which offers a solution to the long-standing challenge of dioecism and could enhance in situ tree propagation programs.

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Alternaria radicina Causing Leaf Spot Disease of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in Wasit (Middle of Iraq) and Its Susceptibility to Bioassay Test of Two Fungicides

International Journal of Phytopathology ◽

10.33687/phytopath.004.02.1225 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 81-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mohammed W. Khudhair ◽

Ruaa A. Jabbar ◽

Naeem S. Dheyab ◽

Bassim S. Hamad ◽

Hadi M. Aboud ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Date Palm ◽

Black Spot ◽

Phoenix Dactylifera ◽

Leaf Spot Disease ◽

Spot Disease ◽

Phoenix Dactylifera L ◽

Study Results ◽

Bioassay Test ◽

High Level

Three Alternaria radicina (Meier) Neerg isolates (A1, A2, and A3) were isolated and firstly recorded in date palm, Phoenix dactylifera L. leaves in Wasit province (middle of Iraq) and identified as the causative pathogen of black spot disease. Two fungicides (Bavistin and Tachigazole) were used in vitro to measure their ability to control this pathogen. Study results revealed that both chemical fungicides expressed high level of inhibition in fungal radial growth especially at a concentration of 100 ppm and the lowest growth was at the concentration 5 ppm among all three isolates in both two fungicides. Bavistin revealed higher inhibition rate than Tachigazole with lowest LC50 (12.21) at the isolate A3. Tachigazole treatment showed high level of variation at all concentrations.

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MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISATION OF DATE PALM CULTIVARS FROM GHARDAÏA (SOUTHEAST ALGERIA)

Journal of Applied Life Sciences and Environment - Summer ◽

10.46909/journalalse-2021-002 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 185 (1) ◽

pp. 12-24

Author(s):

Abdelkader ALLAM ◽

Kaouthar DJAFRI ◽

Meriem BERGOUIA ◽

El-Haîfa KHEMISSAT ◽

Mohamed TAMA ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Date Palm ◽

Sugar Content ◽

Principal Component ◽

Phoenix Dactylifera ◽

Physicochemical Characteristics ◽

Important Species ◽

Palm Trees ◽

Phoenix Dactylifera L ◽

Physicochemical Characterisation ◽

Very High

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is an economically important species vital for food security in Algeria, especially for the southern population. There are an estimated 18 million palm trees in Algeria with more than 1000 cultivars. This poorly known resource is unfortunately threatened with extinction. This work was carried out on 24 date palm cultivars, studying their morphological and physicochemical characteristics, such as the weight, length and diameter of the date and the seed, and the consistency, moisture, pH and sugar content of the dates. Ten homogeneous palm trees were selected for each cultivar. From each tree, we collected 40 fruits devoid of their calices (4-5 fruits per bunch), at different heights and orientations in each bunch. The results show that the morphological and physicochemical characteristics vary from one cultivar to another. The dates of most cultivars have a combination of good and bad characteristics. The cultivar Tmar-Bousbaa has very high values for the characteristics weight, length, and diameter of the date and seed (23.16 g, 4.90 cm, 2.85 cm, and 1.53 g, 2.74 cm, 0.94 cm, respectively). The cultivars Takarnait and Halwa have high acidity, varying between 1.08 and 1.92 g/kg of fresh material and a pH of less than 5.46. The cultivar Bouarous has a low sugar content: less than 63%. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyse the whole dataset, revealing high variability among the cultivars. Thus, out of 14 characteristics investigated, ten have been shown to be strong discriminating factors.

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