Characterization of some Persimmon Genotypes using Morphological Characters and RAPD Markers

A set of 29 persimmon genotypes were characterized using morphological characters and RAPD markers. Some fruit traits of: fresh weight, fruit length and diameter, firmness, fruit juice pH, TA, TSS, flavor index, fruit skin and flesh color, seededness, leaf length and width were evaluated. Analysis of variance for the investigated characters showed that genotypes were significantly different. Results of simple correlation analysis indicated the existence of significant positive and negative correlations among some characters. Factor analysis was employed for a determination of the number of main factors. The effective factors were categorized in four groups that totally expressed 76.75% of total variance. In RAPD analysis, totally 100 primers were used, among which 13 showed good amplification and polymorphism. These primers produced 65 bands, among which 64 were polymorphic. Cluster analysis was performed using Jaccard’s similarity coefficient matrix and UPGMA method. At similarity distance of 60% on the dendrogram, the genotypes were divided into 4 sub-clusters. Wild genotypes separated from kaki genotypes and produced two groups of lotus and virginiana species. Kaki genotypes also divided into two groups of common type and Japanease types. Cophenetic coefficient between similarity matrix and the dendrogram (r=0.97) showed the goodness of fit for the dendrogram and the similarity data