Characterization of the vineyard byotyp collection of peach as step in prebreeding process

Abstract

In this research, morphological characterization of vineyard peach collection was conducted. In 78 accessions thirty qualitative traits of tree, flower, leaf, fruit and stone were analysed by using UPOV and ECPGR descriptors. Most of the studied traits showed a high degree of variability. The lowest variability obtained for the leaf traits, and highest for skin and flesh colour. Not only were the accessions sorted into a large number of categories by the most of their properties, but also there was a significant level of variability in the collection, reflecting in the fact that the traits were recombinant in a different way. Principal component analysis (PCA) and a dendrogram were performed to determine relationships among accessions and to obtain information on the usefulness of those characters for the discrimination. The PCA revealed that the first 4 principal components were able to represent 43.1% of total variance. Traits with high discriminating values comprised internal and external fruit colour, flower type and colour, flower bud density and stone shape. The cluster analysis showed that the accessions were placed in three main clusters. The greatest impact on the separation in clusters had fruit over colour and extent of fruit over colour. Moreover, the collection can also comprise some accessions with the preferred recombination of properties that might be interesting for further studies in breeding.