Morphological characterization and assessment of genetic diversity of natural Moroccan populations of Capparis spinosa

Abstract

Capparis spinosa is one of the most important species in the genus Capparis owing to its ecological, medicinal and economic values. It spread in the North of Africa and grows naturally in Morocco. In this work, we evaluate the inter-variation, in eight natural Moroccan populations of Capparis spp. from the Fez-Meknes region in north-central Morocco, at the morphological and genetic level. Genetic variation of this species was assessed using Inter-Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) markers. The morphological traits submitted to canonical discriminant analysis enabled separation of eight populations of C. spinosa. The AMOVA results revealed that the genetic variation among the populations (13%) was revealed to be significantly less pronounced than that observed within the some populations (87%). The STRUCTURE analysis and cluster analysis assumed from the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA) highlighted three groups within the ISSR data. Our results suggested the presence of hybrid forms of C. spinosa in north-central Morocco. The raised levels of genetic variation revealed within the Moroccan Capparis population by ISSR markers indicate that an appropriate conservation program will allow capturing the majority of genetic diversity found within this species to help ensure its long-term breeding success.