The S-genotyping of wild-grown apricots reveals only self-incompatible accessions in the Erzincan region of Turkey

Abstract

IntroductionApricots are grown in warm temperate to subtropical regions of all continents. Over a long period, cultivation moved westward from China to Middle Asia and, further, to Europe. Turkey dominates world apricot production with approximately 500,000 t of annual production. Apricot has been widely cultivated for its edible fruit throughout Turkey since ancient times, especially in Inner Anatolia (e.g., Malatya, Erzincan, Aras valley). Some parts of Turkey, especially the Erzincan plain, have huge native seedling apricot populations. Some of the seedlings genetically reveal late blooming and a dwarf growth habit. These forms may be important for the extension of the harvest period (Ercisli, 2004). In addition, improving the antioxidant capacity of fruits is among the most recent breeding efforts in a range of Prunus species . This can be achieved by including wild accessions into the parental combinations since they accumulate higher levels of antioxidant polyphenolics in fruit compared to popular commercial cultivars (Yildiz et al.

S-Genotype Profiles of Turkish Apricot Germplasm

“…The size of the PCR products was compared with those previously published by other researchers (Vilanova et al, 2005;Halász et al, 2007Halász et al, , 2010. For S 8 and Sc alleles, although Vilanova et al (2005) and Halasz et al (2010) reported as 353 and also, Halasz et al (2013) reported as 355 bp, the hereby result obtained was 354 bp band size. These differences might be explained by the genetic analyzers that affect the sensitivity of the method (Cachi and Wünsch, 2014).…”

“…Mehlenbacher et al (1991) reported that the European group of apricot (Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia are included) may be described as self-compatible. It was reported by Halasz et al (2013) to support the S-genotype determinations, as first intron lengths were also determined for all genotypes using fluorescently labelled primers and automated sizing on a capillary sequencer. Analysis of the first intron in 63 wild-grown apricot accessions from Turkey showed that 17 of 63 apricot accessions had 355 bp fragment.…”

“…In apricot, self-compatibility is attributed to a pollen-part mutation: a 353 bp insertion in the SFB gene. To distinguish between the selfincompatible (SI) and self-compatible (SC) accessions, a previously designed specific primer pair (AprFBC8) can be used (Halasz et al, 2010), which amplifies a fragment of approximately 500 bp in the case of SFB C-allele, while genotypes carrying the SFB 8-allele show a fragment of approximately 150 bp (Halasz et al, 2013). Thus, Halasz et al (2013) determined 17 apricot accessions carrying SFB 8-allele among 63 apricots from Turkey using AprFBC8 primer pair and they were stated as self-incompatible.…”

“…The primer pair Pru-C2 and PCE-R was developed from C2 and C3 in Prunus by Tao et al (1999) and Yamane et al (2001) and is considered as the universal primer pair for determining the S-genotypes in Japanese apricot (Habu et al, 2008). Halasz et al (2013) carried out a study to determine Sgenotypes of wild-growing Turkish apricots by PCR amplification of the S-RNase intron regions and SFB gene, in order to characterize their sexual (in) compatibility phenotype. The authors determined the complete S-genotype of 63 wild-grown apricot accessions that originated in the Erzincan region.…”

“…Aside from this practical importance, SI of Rosaceae is interesting from an 68 eco-geographical group of apricot (Burgos et al, 1998;Halasz et al, 2005Halasz et al, , 2007Halasz et al, , 2010 and studies undertaken to determine new SI alleles in apricot have been continuing (Halasz et al, 2013).…”