*2.2. Tissue Sampling and DNA Extraction*

Plant tissues were sampled from 36 individuals and dried immediately with silica gel at room temperature for DNA extraction. Unique identifiers were provided to the specimens and the tissue samples. Further, the tissue samples were ground to a fine powder using BeadBlaster 24 microcentrifuge homogenizer. Genomic DNA extraction was then performed using the DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturer's protocol with minor modifications, where proteinase K was added, followed by the AP1 buffer and RNase A, and the incubation time was increased to 1–3 h. Samples were eluted in Nuclease-Free Water. The isolated DNA was tested for quality by gel electrophoresis (BioRad, Hercules, CA, USA) on a 1% agarose gel and quantity using spectrophotometric analysis (Denovix, Wilmington, DE, USA).
