Abstract
Pawpaw [Asiminatriloba (L.) Dunal] is a tree fruit native to areas in the Midwest and Southeast United States. Since 1994, Kentucky State University (KSU) has served as the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository, or gene bank, for pawpaw; therefore, the assessment of genetic diversity in pawpaw is an important research priority for the KSU program. There are over 1800 pawpaw accessions (trees) from 16 different states and over 40 cultivars that are planted on 8 acres at the KSU farm. The objectives of this study were to develop microsatellite markers for pawpaw, and to then use those markers to evaluate 19 cultivars in the repository collection. Leaves of the pawpaw cultivar Sunflower were sent to Genetic Information Systems (Chatsworth, Calif.) for simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer and marker development. A total of 34 microsatellite primers were developed for pawpaw. These primers were then used in a preliminary screening with five pawpaw cultivars (`Sunflower', `Mitchell', `Sweet Alice', `Overleese', and `Prolific'). Results from this preliminary screening indicate that four of the primers failed to amplify any product, 12 primers were monomorphic, and 18 primers were polymorphic. Eleven additional cultivars were then screened, which produced numerous polymorphic products. For example, Primers B3 and B118 produced products ranging in size from 490 to 350 bp. Polymorphic products will be used to examine genetic variation among the pawpaw cultivars screened.
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