ISOZYME DIVERSITY IN IRANIAN ALMOND

The Iranian almond-breeding program was initiated in the 1980s with the aim of producing late-blooming cultivars adapted to local conditions. The goal of the recent breeding program was to produce cultivars with superior characteristics for all parts of Iran. Hybridization between selected local Iranian, American and Australian cultivars was made in Australia from 1990–1994 and isozyme markers were used to identify hybrids. Also Iranian almond genotypes collected from different parts of Iran as well as six wild species (five Iranian and one European), were studies for six isozymes, GPI, LAP, AAT, IDH, PGM, and SKDH. Iranian cultivars as well as wild species showed new alleles for IDH, AAT, PGM, GPI and SKDH, which indicates this area as an important gene pool for almond. The high frequency of new alleles in almond collected from northern Iran suggest that domestication of almond started from this area and spread to other parts of Iran.

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