Characterization of date palm cultivars is a complex task using morphological traits alone since morphological markers are dependent on plant developmental stage and influenced by the environment. However, DNA fingerprinting can complement and enhance the discriminatory power of morphological traits. The study was conducted to investigate genetic diversity amongst fourteen cultivars of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) from Nigeria and Saudi Arabia using microsatellite markers. The aim was to determine the genetic and geographical patterns of Nigeria and Saudi Arabia date palms. Molecular study conducted using six microsatellite markers employed on fourteen cultivars, ten from Nigeria and four from Saudi Arabia, revealed 83.3% polymorphism which indicated high genetic diversity among the cultivars studied. The amplified products ranged in size from 127 to 304 bp. A total of 42 alleles with an average of seven alleles per locus were scored. Two of the markers, MpdCIR025 and MpdCIR050, distinctively characterized six cultivars. This study indicated that variation observed among the cultivars followed a geographical pattern. However, this study was not able to show any alleles that might be linked to gender in date cultivars. Inclusion of more molecular markers in such a study might provide more accurate differentiation and possibly gender discrimination in date palm.

Genetic variability among the fruits of 22 date palm cultivars was studied using 6 nutritional characters to enable us classify the available germplasm into distinct groups on the basis of their genetic diversity using their nutritional characteristics from proximate composition. The main date palm-growing areas of Nigeria were surveyed in 2011 with the objective of characterizing cultivars as to the quality and economic value of their fruits. Descriptive statistics and some multivariate analysis techniques were used to classify the 22 date palm cultivars. The genotypes based on studied traits were grouped into three clusters. Discriminant function analysis was used to confirm the accuracy of grouping that was produced by cluster analysis. Sugar and crude protein content were identified as important traits that could be used to differentiate the genotypes as revealed by both principal component and discriminant analysis. Genetic distance between Daushenga 1 and Saberari 2 exhibited the greatest dissimilarity followed by Daushenga 1 and Hausawa. Hence the use of these parents for hybridization should be given greater emphasis for the production of transgressive segregants with high nutritional potential. The level of variability observed suggested a high diversity among the cultivars. The result Original Research Article Hamza et al.; IJPSS, Article no. IJPSS.2014.003 249 of the principal component analysis indicated that the contribution of the first three factors with Eigen value greater than one accounted for 73.03% of the total variation. The moderately high ash content shows that date palm fruit can effectively serve as a source of inorganic minerals and good adsorbent in the removal of metallic ions, odour, colours and other particulate matter from aqueous medium of water and waste water thus making date palm fruit an effective material precursor in water and waste water treatment among other uses. The high soluble carbohydrate content indeed gives an indication that it compares favourably with other fast energy giving food stuffs and thus it can be added to some food content as an additive .This work identified the existence of inherent variability in the local germplasm collections, and the traits that could be used to exploit the observed variability, eliciting important relationships among the traits in the process.

Date palm progress derived from 60 crosses replicated twice, subjected to analysis of variance using nested design for the purpose of estimating fulsibs, broad sense and narrow sense heritability's, genetic advance and genetic advance as percentage mean for the eight fruit traits.Positive estimates were recorded for fulsibs heritability for the traits.Broad sense heritability for the traits was high.Narrow sense estimates were low and negative indicating that the estimates were not different from zero or they were very small.Heritability indicates the effectiveness with which selection of genotype can be based on phenotypic performance, though it does not provide any indication of the amount of genetic progress that will result from selecting the best individuals.The relatively high estimates obtained for broad sense and medium estimates for fulsibs heritability suggest that variation in these traits may be attributed to a high degree of additive gene action and selection for these traits would therefore be effective and thus shows that the traits are under strong genetic control.Broad sense heritability estimate for any one trait is useful when high genetic advance in that trait is feasible, because high heritability coupled with high genetic advance is the true index for effective selection.It was necessary that expected genetic advance be estimated to know what level of improvement can be expected from selection of each of the characters examined.Pollen source has strong influence on fruits and seed characters of date palm.Among the palms used for this study, male 1R12 GPIII; 6R3 GPIII and 1R7 NCRP performed better than the rest.Mass, recurrent and backcross selection are recommended for further breeding programs in development of date palms in Nigeria.

A field experiment was carried out at Nigeria institute for Oil Palm Research date palm Research substation Dutse, Jigawa state during 2004-2005 flowering season.Biparental progenies derived from 60 crosses replicated twice were subjected to analysis of variance using nested design for the purpose of estimating additives, genetic and dominance components of variances of the seven bunch traits.Significant variation was observed for the traits studied.The male components of variances (σ 2 m) for all the traits were negative, indicating that the estimates were not different from zero or were very small.Positive estimates were recorded for females within male variance (σ 2 f/m), while Non-significant negative additive variances (σ 2 A) were obtained for all the traits.Dominance variance (σ 2 D) showed significant positive values for number of fruits, spikelets, aborted fruits and unfertilized florets.Positive estimates were recorded for environmental variance (σ 2 e), genotypic variance (σ 2 g) and phenotypic variance (σ 2 ph).In allcases phenotypic variance was much larger than the genotypic variance.Low environmental variance were obtained for the traits indicating that the environmental condition where the experiment was carried out is homogenous and the material could perform considerably well under similar environmental conditions.The means performance of the males indicates that variability exists between the males; Males 6R3 and 1R7 are good combiners with female 12R3 for number of fruits while males 1R12 and 5R2 are good combiners with female 12R3 for number of fruits.Female 2R8 is poor general combiners for number of fruits.Males 1R12 and 5R2 are good combiners with female 1R27 for weight of fruit while male 6R3 and 1R7 are good combiners with female 12R3 for fruit weight.Recurrent and backcross selection are recommended for further date palm improvement programs.