Morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization of Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) varieties

Abstract

Seeds of five Egyptian clover varieties, Helaly, Serw 1, Gemmiza 1, Giza 6 and Sakha 4 were planted during 2007 at Giza Agricultural Research Farm, Egypt. The highest total dry matter yield of 15.86 t ha-1 was recorded for Gemmiza 1 variety. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) was performed for native and SDS protein and isozyme variations. RAPD was conducted using 8 arbitrary 10-mer primers. Combined analysis based on four isozymes, PAGE protein electrophoresis and RAPD analyses revealed highest similarity of 0.85 between the two varieties Sakha 4 and Gemmiza 1, while the lowest similarity (0.53) was observed between Giza 6 and Helaly.