PARENT IDENTIFICATION OF HUNGARIAN APPLE CULTIVARS USING SSR MARKERS

Abstract

In a classic apple-breeding program and to characterize fruit cultivars it is important to know the origin of the common cultivars. Molecular markers are highly useful to distinguish genotypes and co-dominant markers like microsatellites can be further used to verify the parenthood of apple cultivars. In this study 8 SSR markers were applied to verify the parentage of eight cultivars, four cultivar candidates, two breeding clones and their supposed parents. These 8 primer pairs proved to be sufficient to control the pedigree of the tested hybrids. To verify the parents, the frequencies of the loci supporting the hypothetical parentship were counted. The origin of 10 Hungarian cultivars and hybrids ('Jonager', 'Kovauguszt', 'Kovelit', 'Kovmulti', 'Kovsztar', 'Nyari zamatos', A-380, MR-09, MR-12, MR-13) could be confirmed from the total of 14 tested. The maternal parent of 'Fertődi teli' is unequivocal but the pollen partner remains unknown. The paternal parent of A-75 hybrid (an offspring from the presumed cross 'Idared' × 'Priam') could not be determined, as well. According to our results neither 'Teli aranyparmen' nor 'Jaszvadoka' can be a parent of 'Budai Domokos'. To detect male parents in some cases, further analyses are required.