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Genetic diversity of Malus cultivars and wild relatives in the Chinese National Repository of Apple Germplasm Resources

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Abstract

The Research Institute of Pomology (IP), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Xingcheng, China, maintains hundreds of apple accessions that originated from around the world. We have used 16 microsatellites to assess the diversity and differentiation of 391 accessions within the IP that represent Malus × domestica (from China, Japan, former Soviet Republics, and Western countries) as well as the crop’s wild relative species Malus baccata, Malus prunifolia, Malus × robusta, and Malus sieversii. We identified genetic relationships among these eight source categories that suggest that the M. × domestica cultivars from the former Soviet Republics are most closely related to M. sieversii and may represent an independent lineage of domesticated apples distinct from those found in Western Europe and North America. We show that the M. × domestica cultivars from China and Western sources are genetically similar, whereas the cultivars from Japan are distinct. We also describe two accessions of M. × domestica ssp. chinensis landraces that are believed to be over 2000 years old and are more similar to wild species than are most of the M. × domestica cultivars. We show that the wild, landrace, and cultivar accessions within the IP offer novel diversity to apple breeding programs.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Jia Jizheng for helpful suggestions and arrangements for the experiments performed at the Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm and Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing, P. R. China. This research was funded by Core Research Budget of the Non-Profit Governmental Research Institution (ICS, CAAS) and the Special Scientific Research Fund of Agricultural Public Welfare Profession of China, the Ministry of Finance, P. R. China (No. 092060302-9 and No. 201303093). This project was performed as part of the Bilateral Agreement between USDA and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) for cooperation on US-China Agricultural Flagship Projects (Project Number 0210-22310-004-50). Mention of trade names or commercial products in this article is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the US Department of Agriculture.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data archiving statement

The accession and SSR data for this research are available at the Genome Database for Rosaceae (tfGDR1017; www.rosaceae.org).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Repository of Apple Germplasm Resources, Research Institute of Pomology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops (Germplasm Resources Utilization), Ministry of Agriculture, No. 98 Xinghai South Street, Xingcheng, Liaoning, 125100, People’s Republic of China

    Yuan Gao, Fengzhi Liu, Kun Wang, Dajiang Wang, Xin Gong & Lijun Liu

  2. USDA-ARS National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, 1111 S. Mason Street, Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA

    Christopher M. Richards, Adam D. Henk & Gayle M. Volk

Authors
  1. Yuan Gao
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  2. Fengzhi Liu
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  3. Kun Wang
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  4. Dajiang Wang
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  5. Xin Gong
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  6. Lijun Liu
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  7. Christopher M. Richards
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  8. Adam D. Henk
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  9. Gayle M. Volk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kun Wang.

Additional information

Communicated by M. Troggio

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Germplasm Diversity

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Gao, Y., Liu, F., Wang, K. et al. Genetic diversity of Malus cultivars and wild relatives in the Chinese National Repository of Apple Germplasm Resources. Tree Genetics & Genomes 11, 106 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-015-0913-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-015-0913-7

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