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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #218292
Title: Genetic Relationships within Heritage Apple and Pear Cultivars in the Azores

Author
item Bassil, Nahla
item Hummer, Kim
item Postman, Joseph
item Fazio, Gennaro
item ARMAS, ISABEL - TECNICA SUPERIOR
item WILLIAMS, ROGER - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/15/2007
Publication Date: 1/17/2007
Citation: Bassil, N.V., Hummer, K.E., Postman, J.D., Fazio, G., Armas, I., Williams, R. 2007. Genetic Relationships within Heritage Apple and Pear Cultivars in the Azores. Plant and Animal Genome Conference.

Interpretive Summary: As part of the Azores cooperative initiative program (ACIP) scientists from the US Department of Agriculture and Serviço de Desenvolvimento Agario da Terceira are collaborating to identify heritage apples and pears collected from locations throughout Terceira, Azores, Portugal. Nine apple molecular markers called simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were used to determine relationships among 17 apple and 6 European pear cultivars long grown in the Azores. Eight common European apple and pear cultivars were included as standards. The molecular markers clearly distinguished between apples and pears. Among apples, nine unique types were identified and three groups of identical cultivars with different common names were detected. In one case, four apples were shown to be identical. Four unique pears were identified and one pair of identical types. None of the types obtained from the Azores matched standard Portuguese apple or pear cultivars. Morphological observations will validate the SSR-based results. The nine markers of this study are part of a fingerprinting set proposed by the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR), Pyrus fruit network. Use of this standard marker set will facilitate international comparisons of cultivars, and might result in identification of these Azores fruit trees with other cultivars.

Technical Abstract: As part of the Açores cooperative initiative program (ACIP) scientists from the US Department of Agriculture and Serviço de Desenvolvimento Agario da Terceira are collaborating to identify heritage apples and pears collected from locations throughout Terceira, Açores, Portugal. Nine apple microsatellite markers were used to determine genetic relationships among 17 apple and 6 heritage European pear cultivars grown in the Açores. Eight additional standard apple and pear cultivars were included. The unweighted pair-groups method analysis (UPGMA) clustered these accessions into two groups: apple and pear. Among apple genotypes, nine unique accessions were identified and three groups of synonyms were detected including: ‘Reineta Agosto' and 'Reineta Verde Altares'; ‘Reineta Castanha' and 'Reineta Verde Miuda'; and the four genotypes 'Maca Branca', 'Maca de S. Joao', 'Maca Pato', and 'Malápio Rosa'. In pear, four unique pear genotypes were identified and one pair of synonyms consisting of ‘Pera Papo Pintassilgo' and 'Pera Vermelha'. None of the accessions obtained from the Açores corresponded to widely grown standard Portuguese apple or pear cultivars. Morphological observations will validate the SSR-based synonymy. The nine SSRs of this study are part of a fingerprinting set proposed by the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR), Pyrus fruit network. Use of this standard SSR set will facilitate international comparisons of genotypes, and might result in identification of these Açores fruit trees with other cultivars.