MOLECULAR APPROACHES TO SYSTEMATICS OF ACTINIDIA

Taxonomic relationships among some twenty Actinidia were analyzed using isozyme polymorphism (82 alleles at 15 loci) and restriction fragment length polymorphism of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) (146 restriction fragments in four PCR-amplified cpDNA regions (rbcL and psbA genes and two spacers flanking the trnL gene). Both alleles and restriction fragments were coded for presence or absence and the sets of data were explored by UPGMA analysis based on distance values between pairs of species.

Inconsistencies between isozyme and cpDNA analyses suggest that at least some Actinidia species may be natural interspecific hybrids.
Five species groups were recognized as being of taxonomic value.
The A. arguta complex could be the core of the series Lamellatae section Leiocarpae if A. kolomikta and A. rufa now included in this series, were placed elsewhere.
The second clusters species of the series Solidae section Lamellatae. The third, represented by A. hemsleyana could be the core of the section Strigosae. The last group was represented by the A. chinensis I A. deliciosa complex.
This complex belongs to the section Stellatae which appears to quite heterogeneous as does the Maculatae. A. chinensis and A. deliciosa are closely related according to both isozyme and cpDNA analyses.
They share 34/40 alleles and all but one cpDNA fragment.
Since chloroplast DNA is paternally inherited in Actinidia chinensis must be the paternal, if not the only, progenitor of A. deliciosa, the kiwifruit.

III International Symposium on Kiwifruit

R. Testolin, G. Cipriani, A.R. Ferguson, R.C. Gardner

Kiwifruit, Isozymes, Chloroplast DNA, Molecular taxonomy, Phylogeny

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.444.12