1 Plant Archives Vol. 20, Supplement 1, 2020 pp. 1395-1404 e-ISSN:2581-6063 (online), ISSN:0972-5210 GENETIC DIVERSITY ASSESSMENT AMONG SOME FICUS SPECIES USING MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS AND AFLPS Shimaa Mostafa 1 , Basita A. Hussein 2 , Hossam A. Sayed 1 , Hanaiya A. ElItriby 1 and Ebtissam H.A. Hussein 2 1 National Gene Bank, Agricultural Research Centre, 12169, Giza, Egypt. 2 Department of Genetics, Facuty of Agriculture, Cairo university, 12613, Giza, Egypt Abstract In the present investigation seventeen Ficus species grown in Egypt, collected from two botanical gardens, were studied using twenty leaf morphological characters based on the Fig (Ficus carica L.) IPGRI descriptor, and seven AFLP primer combinations. The morphological characters, included four measured and sixteen descriptive characteristics. The one-way ANOVA test for the measured traits showed significant differences among the seventeen Ficus species. F. microcarpa Hawai showed the lowest value for both leaf length and leaf width, while the highest leaf length and leaf width were revealed by F. hispida and F. carica, respectively. Moreover, Ficus carica possessed the distinctive unique descriptive character of leaf lobation, as it was the only species with five latate lobed leaf, while the other species had entirely unlobed blades. Ficus hispida and F. elastica Decora showed the largest leaf area (400-550 cm 2 ). Also, they were the only two species with serrate dentate leaf margin. On the other hand, the seven AFLP primer combinations generated a total of 662 amplicons across the seventeen species and 652 amplicons were polymorphic with a polymorphism rate of 98.49%. AFLP markers characterized each species with unique positive and/or negative markers. F. hispida amplified the highest number of unique markers (11positive markers) while, F. microcarpa Hawai revealed only 1 unique positive marker. The similarity index value ranged from 0.29 to 0.66 in species (F. microcarpa Hawai and F. carica) and (F. microcarpa Hawai and F. benjamina), respectively. The dendrograms constructed from UPGMA clustering algorithm for the morphological and AFLP datasets revealed different topologies. Nevertheless, these dendrograms showed some similarities, for example, the grouping F. lutea and F. afzelii. Also, the grouping of F. virens and F. trijuja based on morphological and AFLP markers. Keywords: Ficus species, AFLP, morphological characterization, dendrogram, genetic diversity. Introduction The genus Ficus is one of the largest and diverse genera in Moraceae. It comprises about 750 species with distinctive morphological characters, with trees, shrubs, and climber, most notably by specialized inflorescence (syconium) and pollinator mutualism (fig wasps) (Weiblen, 2000; Loutfy et al., 2005; Esmaiel et al., 2014 and Bruun-Lund et al., 2017). Ficus is distributed worldwide, especially, in warm tropical and subtropical regions. Where, the most diverse region is in Asia, Malesia, and Australia (Weiblen, 2000). Most Ficus species are diploids (2n=26), harboring a basic chromosome number of x=13, with the exception of F. elastica Decora which has a 2n=39 (Condit, 1964; Ohri and Khoshoo 1987 and Fang et al., 2007). Corner (1965) classified the Ficus species into four subgenera based on the breeding system, one dioecious subgenus (subgen. Ficus) and three monoecious subgenera (Urostigma, Sycomorus, and Pharmacosycea). Recently, Berg and Corner (2005) divided the Ficus genus into six subgenera. In Egypt no species was recorded belonging to subgenus Pharmacosycea (Sharawy, 2004 and Tantawy et al., 2014). Boulous (1999) recorded three species in the Egyptian flora; Ficus cordata subsp salicifolia, F. palmate and F. carica. Ficus species could be used for different purposes. In general, F. elastica Decora, F. benjamina and F. retusa are used for landscaping or indoor decoration, while, F. carica and F. sycomorus are consumed as edible fruits. In addition, different parts of some Ficus species (leaves, barks, roots and fruits) are employed in folk medicine for their therapeutic actions (Elansary and El- Ansary, 2013 and Mohamed et al., 2018). Plant genetic resources (PGR) represent the natural gene pool for adaptation to environmental stresses, disease and pests resistance. In addition, they are the resources for food security especially in developing countries, as they provide the genetic raw materials for farmers and breeders. In recent years the massive increase in human population, in addition to the global climate change posed increased risk of extinction of valuable genetic resources. This raised the global awareness for conservation of germplasm resources (Rao, 2004; Ogwu et al., 2014 and Bhandari et al., 2017). PGR conservation activities are based on collection, conservation, and identification of genetic materials, by characterization and evaluation techniques (Chandrakant et al., 2017). One key role of gene banks is to maintain and safeguard genetic variation in case of loss, to be accessible for futuristic demand. PGR are conserved in gene banks in different forms such as seeds, vegetative parts, cuttings, pollen, or DNA, which reveal unique forms of diversity (McCouch et al., 2012). Effective conservation of plant genetic resources requires accurate characterization to describe the identity of the germplasm. Conventionally, this was carried out by characterization of morphological variation, especially agro-morphological characteristics, based on specified descriptors. Morphological characters represent the easiest and cheapest markers to characterize, as they are based on visual observation (Govindaraj et al., 2015; Prajapati et al., 2018 and Roughani et al., 2018). Morphological characterization is the preliminary step in the description and identification of species (Weerakoon and Somaratne, 2010). Morphological markers reflect the expressed regions of the genome, but they are highly affected by environment and plant developmental stage (Esmaiel et al., 2014). The advances in molecular techniques resulted in the development of molecular markers which provides accurate tools for genetic resources characterization and resolution of evolutionary relationships among species. The identification of species is important for biodiversity conservation and management (Mosa et al., 2019). Identification of molecular variation is crucial in utilization, conservation, maintenance