Assessing Phenotypic and Molecular Variability in Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) Varieties

Abstract: Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare is an annual herb belonging to the family Apiaceae is a wellknown aromatic and medicinal herb. Three fennel varieties namely Balady (Egyptian), Indian and Holland were used. The quantitative genetic studied characters were linear growth, plant height, number of primary branches, total number of branches, peduncle length and fruit yield of plant. Fifteen promising genotypes were established within each variety. The individual plant selection procedure was practiced on intracultivar populations. The analyses of variance, broad-sense heritability, genetic advance, genotypic and phenotypic correlation coefficients were estimated. In addition, the present study was therefore aimed to focus on understanding the genetic relationship among the three studied varieties of fennel which may further assist in developing and planning breeding strategies for fennel improvement programs. Polymorphism was detected using five RAPD-PCR primers on different three fennel varieties. A total of 38 fragments were delineated out of them 26 were polymorphic. The genotypes frequencies of PCR-RAPD variants were 70.00, 80.00, 66.67, 57.14 and 70.00 with average of 68.42% polymorphism which indicated the presence of high genetic diversity in three fennel varieties. RAPD technique proved to be effective in studying inter and intra specific variation in fennel breeding and a molecular marker of germplasm conservation