Morphological and molecular genetic variations of some taxa of genus <i>Acacia</i> and their taxonomic significance¹

A resemble in <i>Acacia</i> s.l. spp. morphology causes a great confusion about its identification. So, the current study's objectives are using morphological and molecular traits for accurate identification of <i>Acacia</i> s.l. taxa, assess the discrimination of the newly proposed genera of <i>Vachellia</i> and <i>Senegalia</i> and detect the genetic variations between studied taxa. The morphological characters of 24 taxa of genus <i>Acacia</i> s.l. were investigated with emphasis on seeds. DNA fingerprint and the genetic relationships among the studied taxa were investigated by using 10 (RAPD) and 10 (ISSR) markers that showed a relatively equal polymorphism (about 15%). RAPD marker generated a total of 395 fragments of which 64 bands were polymorphic, while ISSR primers generated a total of 314 fragments, 46 of them were polymorphic. The generated dendrogram that based on 893 traits divided the studied taxa of <i>Acacia</i> s.l. into two major groups; <i>Acacia</i> s.s. group and <i>Vachellia</i> group that containing <i>Senegalia</i> taxa. The complementary use of morphological and molecular data gave an accurate characterization and clear the genetic variation between studied taxa of <i>Acacia</i>.