Evaluation of relationships between pear genotypes from North Anatolia, Turkey using SSR markers

Abstract

The pear (Pyrus communis L.) is one of the most important fruit species grown in many temperate regions all over the world. Turkey is rich in pear genotypes adapted to different ecological regions of the country. This study was carried out to identify the genetic relationships among the 97 autochthonous and 4 standard pear genotypes grown in the Sinop province of the Northern Black Sea region of Turkey, using 15 SSR markers. DNA was extracted from newly emerged leaves. Genetic similarities among pear genotypes were calculated using the Nei and Li's coefficient of similarity and a dendrogram gained from SSR data was constructed. In the examined genotypes, it was found that the amounts of DNA were in the range of 145-3419 ng mu L-1, while the purity of DNA was between 1.60-1.97. As a result of SSR analysis of pear genotypes, the similarity index was 0.13 to 1.00. The most genetically similar pear genotypes ('Yumusak-II', 'Sari', 'Kirli', 'Ciger', 'Nar' and 'Bagri Kara') were also determined as morphologically similar.