Comparative DNA Fingerprinting and Botanical Study of Certain Haworthia and Gasteria Species Growing in Egypt

Introduction: Haworthia Duval and Gasteria Duval are succulent plants, native to South Africa. They have been used worldwide in folk medicine. They are members of the Alooideae subfamily, which has been always viewed as a taxonomically confusing sub-family. The present study aims to differentiate between Haworthia limifolia Marloth, Gasteria carinata (Mill.) Duval and Gasteria minima Poelln. growing in Egypt. Methods: A comparative botanical and genetic investigation is presented. Macromorphological and micromorphological botanical features of the leaves and stems of the species under investigation using the entire specimens, transverse sections and isolated elements. Moreover, their DNA was extracted from the leaf samples and RAPD-PCR analysis was made using 10 primers. Results: The comparative botanical criteria of the examined leaves and stems were identified. Furthermore, the total number of amplified products produced by the ten primers was 98 fragments. Primers OPB-07, OPB-01 and OPB-02, recording high percentage of polymorphism (78.6, 70.6 and 57.1%, respectively), can be used to differentiate between the examined species. While primers OPB-01, OPB-04, OPB-07 and OPB-08, generating fragments with wide molecular size (17, 14, 14 and 11fragments, respectively), can be used for the identification of Haworthia limifolia, Gasteria carinata and Gasteria minima. Conclusion: The macromorphological, micromorphological and genetic identifying parameters presented in the current study revealed good crieteria to authenticate and differentiate between Haworthia limifolia Marloth, Gasteria carinata (Mill.) Duval and Gasteria minima Poelln.