Investigation of resistance of apricot progeny to Plum pox virus through molecular markers

Abstract

Plum pox virus (PPV) is the causal agent of sharka disease, which is mainly destructive on apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.), plum (Prunus domestica L.) and peach (Prunus persica L.). There are no efficient control methods except using PPV-free propagating materials and planting PPV-resistant or at least less-susceptible rootstocks. Therefore, lots of studies have been conducted in recent years on breeding of PPV-resistant plants. The objective of this study was the introduction and development of marker-assisted selection (MAS) for PPV resistance in F1 and F2 progenies of some Turkish apricot cultivars. Local apricot cultivars ('Hacihaliloglu', 'Adilcevaz 5', 'Cologlu', 'Sekerpare' and 'Cataloglu') crossed with PPV-resistant 'Stark Early Orange' (SEO) were screened with molecular markers PGS1.21 and PGS2.23 co-segregating with resistance to PPV in 2011. Of all combinations, seven of 20 progeny obtained from SEO × 'Hacihaliloglu', 12 of 34 progeny obtained from SEO × 'Adilcevaz 5', five of 10 progeny obtained from SEO × 'Cologlu', 15 of 37 progeny obtained from SEO × 'Sekerpare' and eight of 33 progeny obtained from SEO × 'Cataloglu' exhibited resistant alleles.