Abstract:
This thesis investigated whether fruit quality variation in three date palm cultivars: Medjool, Khudri, and Sagai, could be linked to genomic variation captured within their seeds. The study was conducted under the biological context of metaxenia— a phenomenon where the pollen parent influences fruit traits where there is no direct genetic effect as found in a seed (xenia). Since the seed embryo preserves both the maternal and paternal genetic contributions, seed-derived progenies were used for downstream genomic analyses to explore genetic factors associated with fruit quality variation.

Bio:
MS Student in the Plant Breeding and Genetics Lab (PBG)