Genetic diversity and fruit morphological characteristics of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) in the prefecture of Arcadia, Greece

Castanea sativa is grown in Greece since antiquity and is a very important species, economically and nutritionally.
In this study, the genetic diversity and fruit morphological characteristics of chestnut trees cultivated in Arcadia, one of the centers of chestnut production in Greece, were investigated.
The molecular analysis was conducted using ISSR molecular markers.
The statistical analysis was conducted using the NTSYS pc 2.02i software and genetic distances were calculated using Jaccard’s similarity factor and confirmed through PCOORDA analysis.
The dendrograms were created using the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean (UPGMA) and the Neighbor Joining (N.J.) methods.
The chestnut trees originating from the Arcadian villages Kastri, Platanos, Agios Petros, Kastanitsa and Doliana showed little genetic diversity among them.
Both dendrograms demonstrated a similar pattern of the samples’ distribution and were divided into two clusters.
The first cluster included most of the samples originating from the adjoining villages Platanos and Kastanitsa.
The second cluster included the samples originating from the neighboring villages Agios Petros, Doliana and Kastri.
The morphological characteristics were measured for two consecutive years.
Fruit length ranged between 37.8 and 43.8 mm and 35.8-43.6 mm, the width 23.3-31.5 mm and 20.9-28.8 mm, the height 31.4-34.1 mm and 30.2-38.5 mm, the weight with peel 17.8-25.6 g and 14.3-25.3 g and without peel 15.1-21.4 g and 12.5-33.3 g, respectively for each year.
No significant differences were observed between those fruit morphological characteristics.
The observed similarity, both, genetically and among the fruit morphological traits, suggests that the chestnut trees of this greater area might be a part of a local genotype that needs to be further studied, identified and compared to other Greek chestnut genotypes in order be characterized as a local cultivar.

IV International Symposium on Horticulture in Europe – SHE2021

P. Kampourolias, L. Basdeki, A. Linos, S. Vemmos, M. Hagidimitriou

molecular analysis, dendrogram, nut traits, N.J., UPGMA, PCOORDA

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1327.38