ISOZYME VARIATION AMONG NATIVE STANDS AND PLANTATIONS OF ALEPPO PINE IN ISRAEL

Abstract

ABSTRACT Judging from enzyme analysis of native stands in Israel, Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.) in the eastern Mediterranean basin has unique genetic characteristics. Only four of thirty isozyme loci surveyed in trees of native stands are polymorphic. Each polymorphic locus has two alleles. Stand expected heterozygosity (He) values are low and range between.03 and.06. Native Aleppo pine has allele frequencies for two isozymes, alanine aminopeptidase (Aap) and catalase (Cat), that distinguish it from that growing in Europe and North Africa. Using allele frequency associations for three loci, three geographic groups of natural stands are identified. Alleles useful for detecting introgression from P. brutia Ten. are absent from the native stands sampled, but occur in planted populations. Six out of nine plantations studied have allele frequencies indicating the presence of some trees from foreign seed sources.