Distribution of hyoscyamus species in egypt and their genetic relationships

Abstract EN

The loss of biodiversity has become an issue of great global concern and the identification of species status had been recognized as an urgent task.

Egypt is among the hot arid regions of the world, where only little attention has been given to its threatened plant species.

The genus Hyoscyamus (Solanaceae) is among the high medicinal potentiality genera in Egypt.

Eight Hyoscyamus species were reported in the Egyptian flora.

Assessment of the Hyoscyamus species was carried out during this work, the results revealed that: Hyoscyamus albus L., H.

desertorum (Aschers.

ex Boiss.) Täckh.

are endangered species; H.

pusillus L.

is highly endangered; H.

boveanus (Dunal) Aschers.

and Schweinf.

Is an endemic vulnerable species; H.

aureus L.

maybe now extinct in Egypt; H.

niger L.

and H.

reticulatus L.

have never been recorded from Egypt in wild localities and H.

muticus L.

is the common species in the genus.

Now, it is reasonable to conclude that only five Hyoscyamus native species may be present in Egypt.

Genetic relationships between four of these species were constructed based on three isozyme systems: Esterase (EST, Glutamate Oxalo-acetate Transaminase (GOT) and Peroxidase (PRX).

The enzyme polymorphism among the studied species was used to construct a dendrogram using the statistic multivariate analysis program.

The obtained data display the possible origin of H.

boveanus from H.

muticus in the Sinai mountainous region.

The genetic relationships between Hyoscyamus species reflect the urgent need for their conservation as a potential gene pool.