Abstract
The genetic diversity of 14 Japanese plum (Prunus salicina Lindl) landraces adapted to an ecosystem of alternating flooding and dry conditions was characterized using neutral simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Twelve SSRs located in six chromosomes of the Prunus persica reference genome resulted to be polymorphic, thus allowing identification of all the evaluated landraces. Differentiation between individuals was moderate to high (average shared allele distance (DAS) = 0.64), whereas the genetic diversity was high (average indices polymorphism information content (PIC) = 0.62, observed heterozygosity (Ho) = 0.51, unbiased expected heterozygosity (uHe) = 0.70). Clustering and genetic structure approaches grouped all individuals into two major groups that correlated with flesh color. This finding suggests that the intuitive breeding practices of growers tended to select plum trees according to specific phenotypic traits. These neutral markers were adequate for population genetic studies and cultivar identification. Furthermore, we assessed the SSR flanking genome regions (25 kb) in silico to search for candidate genes related to stress resistance or associated with other agronomic traits of interest. Interestingly, at least 26 of the 118 detected genes seem to be related to fruit quality, plant development, and stress resistance. This study suggests that the molecular characterization of specific landraces of Japanese plum that have been adapted to extreme agroecosystems is a useful approach to localize candidate genes which are potentially interesting for breeding.
Highlights
The genus Prunus consists of more than 400 species, of which plum, peach, almond, and cherry trees stand out for their commercial importance worldwide
Cross-pollination may have played an important role in the evolution of landraces in the PRD region because early 20th century producers very likely multiplied their trees by seed planting instead of vegetative cloning
The incorporation of the markers linked to the annotated genes in this study could be of high value in marker-assisted selection breeding programs and in future genome-wide association studies (GWAS). This is the first study characterizing a representative sample of different plum landraces adapted to water-stressed environments, in the PRD region of Argentina
Summary
The genus Prunus consists of more than 400 species, of which plum, peach, almond, and cherry trees stand out for their commercial importance worldwide. The Japanese plum (Prunus salicina Lindl) is one of the most commercially important plum species. This diploid (2x = 2n = 16) species has been. Agronomy 2019, 9, 487 cultivated in different environments and was introduced to North America from China in the 19th century [1]. Most Japanese plum cultivars grown worldwide come from the early selections originated in California at the end of the 19th century [2]. Most planted plum orchards in other extensive production regions of Argentina derive from a few introduced cultivars of global distribution.
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