Association Analysis of Some Important Morphological Traits with RAPD Markers in 15 Iranian Date Palm

This study was performed for assessment of correlation of 11 morphological traits with RAPD molecular markers in 15 cultivars of date palm collected from the South and South West of Iran as population analysis by stepwise regression method. The results of simple and multiple regressions showed that in sum 84 RAPD markers had significant association with at least one of the traits. The coefficient of determination of all informative marker ranged from 32. 0 (for stone diameter) to 75. 6 (for fruit shape). The highest coefficient belonged to Oligo 215 primer in stone diameter traits (26%) and then Oligo 211 primer in fruit shape trait (24. 1) as captain markers. Considerable number of morphological changes was justified by Oligo 42 that polymorphic information was content 0. 23. These results showed that with regards to good distribution of random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) in date genome and the markers with high association with agronomic characters، they can be used in identification of informative markers linked to important agronomic characters.