Articles
Assessment of genetic variability amongst cultivated varieties of quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) detected by SSR
Article number
1384_40
Pages
307 – 314
Language
English
Abstract
Quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) is an important pome fruit species in the Rosaceae family and one of the most underutilized.
It is frequently cultivated as a rootstock for apple and pear cultivars and for its nutritious fruits.
In Portugal, quince fruit production reached 9,039 t, with a substantial expansion in recent years, particularly as an alternative to other traditional cultures.
Nevertheless, cultivar breeding by intraspecific crossing has been very limited, and germplasm resources are poorly phenotypically characterized.
The same is true for molecular characterization through different molecular marker systems.
A phenotypic and molecular analysis of C. oblonga germplasm is relevant, not only for breeding purposes, but also for cultivar inscription in plant variety catalogues.
The aims of this work were: 1) to evaluate the germination ability of different quince cultivars, and 2) to investigate the genetic variations within five quince cultivars (Galega, Portugal, Espanhola, Champion and Gigante de Vranja), cultivated in the Beira Interior region in Portugal, through simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers.
The plant material used was sampled from 39 accessions, collected from previously georeferenced orchards in the CULTIVAR project framework (https://icultivar.pt). For molecular analysis, young leaf tissues from each cultivar were collected and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Subsequently, NucleoSpin® Plant II (Macherey-Nagel) was used and optimized to perform total genomic DNA extraction.
Highly polymorphic SSR were chosen according to the literature and tested for amplification.
PCR reactions were optimized in accordance with NZYTaqII 2× Green Master Mix protocol requirements.
Preliminary results show that SSR are reliable tool for a first approach in terms of genetic assessment for the determination of quince diversity.
It is frequently cultivated as a rootstock for apple and pear cultivars and for its nutritious fruits.
In Portugal, quince fruit production reached 9,039 t, with a substantial expansion in recent years, particularly as an alternative to other traditional cultures.
Nevertheless, cultivar breeding by intraspecific crossing has been very limited, and germplasm resources are poorly phenotypically characterized.
The same is true for molecular characterization through different molecular marker systems.
A phenotypic and molecular analysis of C. oblonga germplasm is relevant, not only for breeding purposes, but also for cultivar inscription in plant variety catalogues.
The aims of this work were: 1) to evaluate the germination ability of different quince cultivars, and 2) to investigate the genetic variations within five quince cultivars (Galega, Portugal, Espanhola, Champion and Gigante de Vranja), cultivated in the Beira Interior region in Portugal, through simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers.
The plant material used was sampled from 39 accessions, collected from previously georeferenced orchards in the CULTIVAR project framework (https://icultivar.pt). For molecular analysis, young leaf tissues from each cultivar were collected and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Subsequently, NucleoSpin® Plant II (Macherey-Nagel) was used and optimized to perform total genomic DNA extraction.
Highly polymorphic SSR were chosen according to the literature and tested for amplification.
PCR reactions were optimized in accordance with NZYTaqII 2× Green Master Mix protocol requirements.
Preliminary results show that SSR are reliable tool for a first approach in terms of genetic assessment for the determination of quince diversity.
Authors
A. Pedrosa, A. Cardoso, T. Lopes, J. Canhoto, S. Correia
Keywords
genetic diversity, germplasm valorization, molecular markers, rootstock
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