Abstract
Phytoplasmas such as “Candidatus Phytoplasma pruni,” the causal agent of X-disease of stone fruits, lack detailed biological analysis. This has limited the understanding of plant resistance mechanisms. Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana L.) is a promising model to be used for the plant-phytoplasma interaction due to its documented ability to resist X-disease infection. A consensus chokecherry genetic map “Cho” was developed with JoinMap 4.0 by joining two parental maps. The new map contains a complete set of 16 linkage groups, spanning a genetic distance of 2,172 cM with an average marker density of 3.97 cM. Three significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with X-disease resistance were identified contributing to a total of 45.9% of the phenotypic variation. This updated genetic linkage map and the identified QTL will provide the framework needed to facilitate molecular genetics, genomics, breeding, and biotechnology research concerning X-disease in chokecherry and other Prunus species.
Highlights
Fruit and tree nut production contributes about $25 billion to the U.S economy annually
Walla et al (1996) reported that the few plants with little damage and/or zero observable symptoms might be resistant or highly tolerant to X-disease phytoplasma. This chokecherry planting paved the way for recent molecular genetic studies in chokecherry (Wang et al, 2014) and the results presented here
The results showed that the majority (97.7%) of these simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were successfully anchored to the new chokecherry linkage groups (Table 1)
Summary
Fruit and tree nut production contributes about $25 billion to the U.S economy annually (https:// www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/fruit-tree-nuts/). Phytoplasma biology and mechanisms of plant resistance is not wellunderstood. This is why disease management is often limited to complete eradication of infected trees (Chkhaidze et al, 2016). Other control measures for X-disease phytoplasma include pesticide treatment of leafhopper vectors, antibiotic treatment, non-host buffer zones, and disease resistant cultivars if available. Besides plant resistance, these methods are known to be inefficient and expensive (Peterson, 1984; Davis et al, 2013)
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