Studies on the origin of crop species by restriction endonuclease analysis of organellar DNA. II. Restriction analysis of ctDNA of 11 Prunus species.

Abstract

Restriction endonuclease analysis was carried out on the chloroplast (ct) DNA of 11 species belonging to three subgenera of genus Prunus which includes most common flower trees in Japan, namely, Sakura (P, yedoensis and others) and Ume (P, mume). The ctDNA isolated from fresh leaves was digested with three endonucleases, BamHI, HindIII, and SmaI, and electrophoresed using agarose slab gel. The ctDNAs of the three subgenera had different restriction fragment patterns. In the subgenus Cerasus, two ctDNA types were found, one type in P. yedoensis and P, pendula, and the other in P. lannesiana, P, apetana, P. verecunda and P. sargentii. Similarly, four ctDNA types were found in the subgenus Padus, each type in P. buergeriana, P. grayana, P. Padus and P. ssiori. The ctDNA of the only one species, P, mume, in the subgenus Armeniaca studied differed from those of any of the other species. Chloroplast genome sizes of these species were estimated to be about 140kbp. Based on the present restriction data, two dendrograms showing genetic relatedness between chloroplast genomes of 11 Prunus species were constructed. P, yedoensis, the most common cultivar of the flower cherry, which is presumably a natural hybrid between P. pendula and P, lannesiana (Takenaka 1963) showed no interplant variation of ctDNA and had the same ctDNA as the former species, differing from the latter by a single HindIIl restriction site. This finding suggests that P. pendula is the female parent of P. yedoensis.