'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 BIODIVERSITY IN ATRIPLEX HALIMUS IN TUNISIA AND POLYMORPHISM USE IN SELECTION C. NOUREDDINE Génétique et Biométrie; Faculté des Sciences, Campus Universitaire, 1060 Tunis

Atriplex halimus is an interesting genetic resource in arid countries, as fodder crop or for environment rehabilitation and fighting against desertification. I the aim to start a genetic selection, we have studied the polymorphism of 17 populations diversely located in Tunisia, by measuring plants in nursery at different stages (plant height, stems number, whole dry weight and fresh stems weight.). Using simulation program for appropriate data transformation allowed us to realise comparisons and. Mahalanobis distances calculation, which revealed an important genetic biodiversity which allows to this species an adaptation to various biotop and particularly to the coercive and arid area of the south, bordering the Sahara desert.