Abstract
One of the important factors in molecular biology analysis is DNA extraction process to obtain high quality DNA. Previously, all attempts to extract DNA from date palm involved either the use of fresh leaves or germinated seeds. The aim of this study was to extract genomic DNA from various parts of three years old date palm fruit and to evaluate the genetic diversity among seven cultivars of date palm. The fruit of each cultivar was dissected into perianth, seed without embryo, zygotic embryo, and endocarp-mescocarp-epicarp to extract the DNA. The results showed that genomic DNA could be easily extracted in sufficient quantity from zygotic embryo. Both RAPD and ISSR markers could effectively determine the genetic relationship among date palm cultivars with polymorphism percentage ranging between 32.09% and 36.49% respectively. RAPD markers showed that cultivars with highest similarity value were Lbanah and Nabtat Ali (80.0%), followed by Khalas and Sukkary (73.81%), while the least were Ajwa and Safawi (59.56%). ISSR revealed that the highest similarity values were for Anbar and Khalas (88.0%), followed by Lbanah and Nabtat Ali (86.18%), while the least were Khalas and Safawi (73.81%).