Abstract
Central Europe can be taken as a geographical and historical connection zone between the western growing countries and Asian gene centres of Prunus tree fruits. The determination of the S-genotype of stone fruit (mainly almond, plum, cherries and apricot) cultivars and landraces has both practical and theoretical significance. Our group has allocated complete S-genotypes for more than 200 cultivars and selections of almond, Japanese plum, sweet cherry and apricot. Among Eastern European almond cultivars, two novel cross-incompatibility groups (CIGs) were identified. S-alleles of a related species were also shown in P. dulcis accessions; a fact seems to be indicative of introgressive hybridization. Our results with Japanese plum clarified and harmonized two different allele nomenclatures and formed a basis for intensive international studies. In apricot, a total of 13 new S-alleles were identified from Eastern European and Asian accessions. Many Turkish and North African cultivars were classified into new CIGs, III–XVII. Results suggest that the mutation rendering apricot self-compatible might have occurred somewhere in south-east of Turkey and we were successful to confirm the presumed Irano-Caucasian origin of North African apricots based on the geographical distribution of S-alleles. In sweet cherry, new alleles have been identified and characterized from Turkish cultivars and selections. In addition, wild sweet cherry and sour cherry S-alleles were also shown indicating a a broader gene pool in Turkey as compared with international cultivars. We also used S-genotype information of Ukrainian sweet cherry cultivars to design crosses in a functional breeding program. Our results exhibit an increased number of S-alleles in tree fruit accessions native to the regions from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, which can be used to develop S-genotyping methods, to assist cultivation and draw inferences for crop evolution.
Highlights
Prunus species including almonds, plums, apricots and cherries exhibit gametophytic self-incompatibility, a genetically controlled mechanism enabling styles to reject self-pollen
Plums, apricots and cherries exhibit gametophytic self-incompatibility, a genetically controlled mechanism enabling styles to reject self-pollen. This trait is governed by the polyallelic S-locus, in which there are two genes, the pistil S-ribonuclease (S-RNase) (McClure et al, 1989) and the pollen expressed S-haplotype specific F-box (SFB) (Ushijima et al, 2003; Entani et al, 2003)
Using S-genotyping techniques based on consensus PCR we found that there is an S-RNase allele in a Hungarian cultivar, ‘Tétényi bôtermô’, which has very similar intron length as S9 (Halász et al, 2008)
Summary
Plums, apricots and cherries exhibit gametophytic self-incompatibility, a genetically controlled mechanism enabling styles to reject self-pollen. S-allele diversity among cultivated self-incompatible (SI) fruit trees is of great interest due to its economical importance. Our long-term study is carried out to S-genotype stone fruit (mainly apricot, almond, sweet cherry and plums) cultivars, landraces and wild growing accessions; and to use this information in breeding, cultivation as well as crop evolutionary studies.
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