Taif-roses are a famous rose type that cultivated in Taif region and well known with their deep and intensive fragrance in the Arabian World. Despite of the great economical importance of Taif-roses for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, their genetic origin has not been yet elucidated. The present study was mainly aimed to assess the genetic relationship between Taif-roses and some rose genotypes that grown in some kingdom neighboring countries using molecular markers and aromatic amino acids

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... s. Three Taif-roses genotypes namely Hada, Shafa-1 and Shafa-2 were compared to nine different rose genotypes that are grown in Egypt and Syria. Out of 12 RAPD, 8 ISSR and 8 SSR primers used, clear and repeatable band profile of 8, 6 and 7 primers was obtained from the three markers, respectively. Total of 111, 64 and 15 bands with polymorohism of 96.4, 90.6 and 93.3% were obtained using RAPD, ISSR and SSR, respectively. The discriminating power of the three markers has led to efficient grouping of the 12 rose genotypes using Unweighted Pair Group Method (UPGMA). Among the 12 genotypes, Syrian-Gory rose shown the highest genetic similarity of 75, 92 and 65% with the three Taif-roses genotypes Hada, Shafa-1 and Shafa-2, respectively. The established dendrogram was clearly separated the 12 rose genotypes into four major groups in which the three Taif-roses genotypes were clustered in the same group with the Gory rose-Syrian genotype. Moreover, the data revealed that among the studied rose genotypes, the contents of aromatic amino acids in Syrian-Gory rose and the Taif rose-Hada was the highest and followed by the Egyptian Balady rose 1. While Dutch rose 1, 2, 3 and Dutch tulip 1, 2 were recorded to be the lowest. Together, these results indicate that Taif-rose has closed genetic relations to the Gory rose-Syrian cultivated in Syria. Additionally, a reproducible protocol for In vitro propagation, of Taif-rose genotype (Hada) was developed.