DNA fingerprinting: a genetic database to give greater guarantees to the nursery chain

The Italian DL of February 2, 2021 n.18 “Rules for the production and marketing of propagating materials for fruit plants and vegetables” requires to provide both a pomological description and a genetic-molecular profile (DNA fingerprinting) in order to recognize a new variety into the voluntary national certification system (QVI-Qualità Vivaistica Italia). In compliance with the national voluntary certification rules, CAV – accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture as a Conservation and Pre-multiplication Center (CCP) – decided to assess the genetic profile of all incoming materials, i.e. the new candidate sources delivered by breeders and nurserymen.
Furthermore, DNA fingerprinting is also gradually being extended to pre-basic category materials that have already been kept in the screen houses for years.
Microsatellites (SSR, Simple Sequence Repeat) are the markers of choice for DNA fingerprinting analyses.
More than 2,000 accessions belonging to different fruit species are actually conserved in CAV’s screen houses, half of them have already been genetically characterized and profiles inserted into a database.
The database thus developed is used a) for genetic identity checks in nursery productions, b) to verify the identity of plants/buds purchased by nurserymen and c) in legal disputes for the protection of patented varieties.

I International Symposium on Plant Propagation, Nursery Organization and Management for the Production of Certified Fruit Trees

S. Botti, M. Cardoni, P. Lucchi, R. Zisa, S. Loreti, E. Tura, M. Pancaldi

SSR markers, varietal genetic characterization, practical applications in nursery productions

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1413.18