دراسة التوصيف المورفولوجي و الجزيئي لأنواع الإفدرا الموجودة في سورية

الملخص EN

Background & Objective: Ephedra is a dioecious, drought- and frost-resistant, perennial, evergreen shrub with high medicinal value due to its content of ephedrine alkaloids.

It became quite clear throughout referential studies that this significant medical plant which is spontaneously widespread in Syria and there have been an increased international demand on it hasn’t been studied yet.

The objective of this research was study Ephedra species found in Syria, using morphological traits and molecular markers.

Materials & Methods: Ephedra plants were collected from different locations of Syria.

Morphological characters (male flowers, ripe female cones, and the edges of leaves and sheaths bracts were observed by naked eyes and magnifier.

The DNA of all genotypes was extracted and amplified using seven randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers to study genetic variability at the molecular level.

Results: Morphological data showed differences between three species: E.alata, E.aphylla, E.foemina.

Tested RAPD primer gave repeatable polymorphic products producing a total of 55 bands, 51 of them were polymorphic.

The level of polymorphism was 92% with an average of 7.28 bands/ primer.

The similarity coefficient matrix of seven Ephedra genotypes based on the data of 7 RAPD primers using the UPGMA method was used to construct a dendrogram.

Discussion: Two major clusters were obtained from the dendrogram belonging to studied genotypes; Cluster I and cluster II.

Cluster I comprised two genotypes, Cluster II comprised the other five minor genotypes.

The highest value about 0.70 of similarity was observed between genotypes D & B.

The lowest value of similarity 0.18 was observed between K & B.

Conclusion: A significant correlation was found between morphological distances, genetic distances and geographic distances of the studied genotypes.