Morphological and genetic polymorphism of the introduced population of Prunus pumila L. in Chelyabinsk Province

Background. Studying genetic polymorphism of the Prunus pumila L. representatives with a wide range of variability in morphological characters will make it possible to identify promising genotypes with high combining ability for hybridization.

Material and methods. The study covered 39 genotypes from the Chelyabinsk cultivated population and 6 genotypes from Khakassia, with extreme or intermediate expressions of such characters as fruit size, color and shape; stone shape and surface structure; leaf blade serration and shape; plant habitus, and some others. Genetic distances were calculated using the data matrix for binary states of presence (1) or absence (0) of amplified fragments with the Past Program (Gower). The UPGMA dendrograms were obtained in TREECON (version 1.3b).

Results and discussion. The selected 5 ISSR and 2 RAPD primers demonstrated their effectiveness in detecting genetic polymorphism in the studied accessions. In individual cases, a weak connection of separate markers with leaf blade edge serration, stone surface structure, plant habitus, and geographic origin of the genotype was detected. Concurrent inclusion of all primers and genotypes in the cluster analysis failed to group the studied P. pumila samples into clades according to the presence/absence of any traits, which may attest to their close genetic affinity. An independent clade with reliable bootstrap support (100%) was formed only for the genotypes of the taxonomically close sp. P. tomentosa Thunb., analyzed as an external group. Moreover, this clade manifested (with the 86% reliability of bootstrap support) differences between the hybrid genotypes of P. pumila × P. tomentosa (F₃) and the genotype of P. tomentosa. Parent pairs promising for fruit quality and shrub shape improvement through breeding were identified using the produced indices of genetic distinction.

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