RELATIONS BETWEEK NATIVE ISRAELI AND JORDANIAN ALEPPO PINE (PINUS HALEPENSIS MILL.) BASED ON ALLOZYME ANALYSIS: A NOTE1

Horizontal starch gel electrophoresis of enzymes extracted from the megagametophytes of germinated Aleppo pine (Pin~rs halepensis Mill.) seeds showed that alleles which are unique to the East Mediterranean group, i.e., Cat-2 allele tno and A a p l allele two, appear also in the Jordanian populations. Mean expected heterozygosity of the Israeli and the Jordanian Aleppo pine groups was 0.143 and 0.140 respectively. Mean genetic identity between these two groups of Aleppo pine populations is 0.991+0.001 in comparison with the mean genetic identity among the eight Israeli Aleppo pine relict populations (0.994=0.005), or between the Israeli and other circum Mediterranean Aleppo pine populations (O.977*0.015). Mean Hs \vas 0.143 and mean H, was 0.149, mean G,,, i e., proportion of total diversity among populations was relatively low- 0.05. Mean genetic distance \vas 0.006 \vhich is similar to the genetic distance among native Israeli populations. The results show that most of the genetic diversity in I? halepensis lies within populations and onlb, a little among the two groups of populations namely the Israeli and Jordanian group. These results confirm a previous hypothesis about the genetic identity of Pinus halepensis populations in Israel and Jordan