A New Dominant Trait of Natural Astringency Loss of Persimmon (Diospyroskaki Thunb.) Found in a Chinese PCNA `Luo Tian Tian Shi'

Abstract

There is a non-astringent type of persimmon that loses its astringency naturally on trees, despite the absence of seeds. This type is called pollination-constant and non-astringent (PCNA)-type. PCNA-type was thought to have originated in Japan as a mutant that terminates tannin accumulation at an early stage of fruit development. This trait is confirmed to be recessive and the PCNA-type must be homozygous in all alleles. In fact, crossing among PCNA-type individuals yields only the PCNA-type in F1, while crossing between PCNA-type and non-PCNA-type yields only the non-PCNA-type. However, a new PCNA cultivar, `Luo Tian Tian Shi', was reported in 1982 to exist in Luo Tian County, China, and this PCNA-type seemed to have different mechanisms to be PCNA-type. Our previous report showed that a crossing between `Luo Tian Tian Shi' and Japanese PCNA `Taishu' yielded both PCNA-type and astringent-type in F1, indicating that the trait of PCNA in `Luo Tian Tian Shi' may be dominant. To confirm this hypothesis, we made crossings between `Luo Tian Tian Shi' and Japanese astringent-type `Yotsumizo' or `Iwasedo', and top-grafted these seedlings for earlier fruiting. As we had some fruits in a total of 25 F1 individuals last year, we investigated segregation of astringency among these individuals. We also confirmed the parental relationships of these progenies by analyzing several SSR markers. We confirmed the segregation of PCNA-type and astringent-type in F1. No mistake of artificial pollination was shown in all individuals by SSR markers. Thus, we concluded that the trait of astringency-loss in `Luo Tian Tian Shi' is dominant and the use of this cultivar as a parent will open a new window for breeding PCNA-type persimmon.