Identification of Sweet Cherry Cultivars (Prunus avium L.) and Analysis of Their Genetic Relationship Using Microsatellite DNA Fingerprinting

Genetic diversity of seven Turkish sweet cherry cultivars and eight commonly grown introduced cultivars were assessed using 23 microsatellite (SSR) markers. Among the markers, nine primers produced poly­morphic patterns resulting in 56 informative alleles. The mean number of alleles per locus was 5.4 while the mean similarity over the nine polymorphic loci averaged 0.463. UPGMA cluster analysis of the data separated cultivars and accessions into two main groups. The results demonstrated that Turkish sweet cherry cultivars have less genetic variation and more closely related to each other. These cultivars contained both Turkish germplasm as well as European and American germplasm in their pedigree. In the present study, same SSR primers were also used to clarify the genetic identity of registered cultivar, 0900Ziraat, which is highly grown in different nurseries all over Turkey but confusingly referred to under different name by local growers due to certain pomological and morphological differences observed among the trees. SSR analysis of seventeen individual tree samples from eight nurseries at different locations, have revealed no genetic variation among samples. The phenotypic variations among the trees were the most probably due to local adaptations to different locations and variations in rootstocks that were used in nurseries rather than the genetic variations among the 0900Ziraat cultivars.