MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF THE GENETIC VARIABILITY OF PORTUGUESE ALMOND COLLECTIONS

In Portugal, almond (Prunus dulcis Mill.) is a traditional crop with good possibilities in terms of production and fruit quality, especially in the Southern (Algarve and Baixo Alentejo) and Northern (Trás-os-Montes) regions.
A study of the variability and relationship among our cultivars is important for the development of a breeding program and for the organisation and conservation of the collections maintained in Portugal.
The genetic relatedness among 35 almond cultivars from Portugal, France and Spain, and 5 putative wild almond plants was estimated using RAPD, msp-PCR and AFLP markers.
The analysis of the data obtained was performed using Dice coefficient and UPGMA clustering.
Three different molecular techniques revealed high levels of polymorphism and were capable of resolving intervarietal differences.
In the case of almond, msp-PCR seems to be a good option for varietal discrimination, due to its low costs, simplicity and reliability.

International Symposium on Molecular Markers for Characterizing Genotypes and Identifying Cultivars in Horticulture

M. Martins, A. Farinha, E. Ferreira, V. Cordeiro, A. Monteiro, R. Tenreiro, M. Oliveira

almond (Prunus dulcis Mill.), RAPD, msp-PCR, AFLP, fingerprinting, genetic similarity

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.546.60