ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Genetics, Epigenetics and Chromosome Biology
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Omani Date Palm Assessed by SSR Markers
Provisionally accepted
- 1Oman Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Water Resources, Muscat, Oman
- 2University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a dioecious, clonally propagated crop in which accurate genetic characterization is essential for germplasm management and breeding. This study used 12 SSR loci to quantify genetic diversity and resolve population structure within a sex-stratified Omani collection (Oman female and Oman male accessions), interpreted against a limited international reference panel (IRD) used strictly for contextual comparison. Across groups, SSR loci were highly polymorphic and captured moderate to high diversity, with mean allelic richness ranging from Na = 9.75–12.58 and expected heterozygosity from He = 0.736–0.797. Observed heterozygosity was consistently lower (Ho = 0.596–0.646), yielding positive inbreeding coefficients (Fis = 0.164–0.193). Pairwise differentiation indicated very weak sex-based subdivision within Oman (Fst = 0.021; Nei's D = 0.143), whereas comparisons between Oman groups and IRD showed higher but still modest differentiation (Fst ≈ 0.057–0.059; D ≈ 0.508– 0.534). AMOVA supported this pattern, with 92% of variation within populations and 8% among populations. Multivariate and model-based structure analyses identified clear genetic clustering overall (optimal K = 4), driven primarily by separation involving the IRD panel rather than by sex within Oman. Collectively, these findings demonstrate substantial within-Oman diversity with minimal sex-based structuring, while highlighting measurable divergence between the Omani collection and the contextual IRD reference panel.
Keywords: AMOVA, Cultivar differentiation, genetic diversity, heterozygosity, Molecular markers, Nei distance, Oman, Phoenix dactylifera
Received: 28 Dec 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 AL-Mamari, AL-Jabri and Mayes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
AL-Ghaliya Humaid AL-Mamari
Abdullah Hamed AL-Jabri
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