Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Byron, Georgia » Fruit and Tree Nut Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #386276

Title: Genetic relationship and parentages of historical peaches revealed by microsatellite markers

Author
item Chen, Chunxian
item Okie, William

Submitted to: Tree Genetics and Genomes
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/29/2021
Publication Date: 7/8/2021
Citation: Chen, C., Okie, W.R. 2021. Genetic relationship and parentages of historical peaches revealed by microsatellite markers. Tree Genetics and Genomes. 17/35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-021-01517-8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-021-01517-8

Interpretive Summary: Most historical peach cultivars in the United States, including broadly recognized ‘Elberta’, have unknown or speculative parentages. DNA markers are a reliable tool to determine possible parentage and genetic relationship. In this study, the authors used DNA markers to compare and reveal their genetic and parental relationship of forty-eight historical peach cultivars. The marker data showed that ‘Early Crawford’ was the OP pollen parent of ‘Elberta’ and excluded ‘Oldmixon Free’ and ‘Late Crawford’ as the pollen parent. The data also supported that ‘Rio Oso Germ’ was a self OP of ‘Late Crawford’; ‘Georgia Belle’ was an OP selection of ‘Chinese Cling’ and ‘Oldmixon Free’; and ‘Cumberland’ was a hybrid of ‘Georgia Belle’ and ‘Greensboro’.

Technical Abstract: Most historical peach cultivars’ pedigrees in the United States, including broadly name-recognized ‘Elberta’, are unknown or speculative, so are their phylogenetic relationship. Co-dominant microsatellite markers are a reliable tool to decipher their genetic relationship and possible parentage. In this study, twenty high-quality microsatellite markers were used for genotyping of forty-eight historical and related peach cultivars and understanding of their genetic and parental relationship. Based on the phylogenetic tree built with the shared allele genetic distances, these materials were clustered into five groups, which were consistent with their coordinated distribution generated by principal coordinate analysis. The genotyping results corroborated that ‘Early Crawford’ was the OP pollen parent of ‘Elberta’ and excluded both ‘Oldmixon Free’ and ‘Late Crawford’, two other possibilities The marker results also supported the record of the following pedigrees that ‘Rio Oso Germ’ was a self OP of ‘Late Crawford’; ‘Georgia Belle’ was an OP selection of ‘Chinese Cling’ and ‘Oldmixon Free’; and ‘Cumberland’ was a hybrid of ‘Georgia Belle’ and ‘Greensboro’. In addition, ‘J. H. Hale’ and ‘E. Elberta’ appeared to be an outcross OP of ‘Elberta’, and ‘Dwarf Elberta’ appeared to be a budsport of ‘Elberta’.