Molecular identification of Rosa x damascena growing in Taif region (Saudi Arabia)

A fragment of 772 bp of the chloroplast maturase K gene was amplified and sequenced for Rosa x damascena trigintipetala variety growing in Taif region of Saudi Arabia. The data were aligned with their counterparts of other varieties already found in the Genbank database and were analyzed by maximum-parsimony, neighbor-joining and maximum-likelihood methods and a single rooted tree was executed. R. x damascena trigintipetala was paraphyletic where one sample [A] clustered with all varieties while the second [B] was basal. R. x damascena was sister to R. x chinensis semperflorens with the later being basal. R. x damascena gori was basal for all taxa studied. R. moschata was inside the clade of R. x damascena. Hybridization could be possible among R. damascena, R. chinensis and R. moschata. The genetic distance and tree topology indicated that [A] variety could be originated from R. moshata while [B] could be originated from gori or R. chinensis semperflorens. We, therefore, may consider that R. x damascena gori or R. chinensis could be the origin of all nowadays R. x damascena varieties.