Genetic Diversity in Apple Accessions Belong to Different Species Collected from Natural Populations of Tianshan Mountains, South-West Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

There isn’t any concrete consensus about the origin of domesticated apple. However, it is generally thought that the origin of this apple primarily comes from M. sieversii, also known as Central Asia wild apple. The second significant contribution is thought to be supplied by M. sylvestris. Central Asia is an important origin region for apples. Within this region, mountainous and forestlands of Kyrgyzstan constitute a significant source for wild apple species. The present study was conducted to put forth the genetic relationships between 65 accessions belonging to M. kirgishorum, M. domestica, M. niedzwetzkyana, and M. sieversii apple species collected from different regions of Kyrgyzstan and 12 accessions belonging to M. baccata, M. prunifolia, M. sylvestris and M. domestica species collected from different regions of Turkey. A combination of ISSR and SRAP markers were used in this study. About 71.1% polymorphism was obtained with ISSR primers and 83.5% with SRAP primers. Similarity level of accessions studied was found between 0.74 and 0.95. All materials used in this study were genetically separated from each other. The apple accessions used in this study were generally placed in a mixed fashion with the other materials in the dendrogram. Apart from some exceptions, standard apple accessions of M. domestica species taken from Kyrgyzstan and Turkey were grouped separately from standard apple cultivars. While the genotypes of wild species were mostly placed in the other group of the dendrogram, small number of genotypes of M. domestica species was placed in this group. Present outcomes revealed significant information for the preservation, assessment and breeding of wild apple species of Kyrgyzstan.