Parentage Analysis in Japanese Peaches using SSR Markers.

Parentage of 16 peach cultivars, including 9 cultivars bred by controlled hybridization, 2 from bud sport mutations and 5 from chance seedlings, was analyzed using 17 SSR markers. The parent-offspring relationships of 9 crossbreeding cultivars were confirmed because SSR alleles were transmitted to offspring cultivars from their parents without discrepancy at all the used loci. ‘Akatsuki’ and ‘Gyousei’ showed identical SSR genotypes, which suggested that ‘Gyousei’ was derived from a bud sport mutation. In contrast, another bud sport cultivar, ‘Hikawa Hakuhou’, showed different SSR genotypes from those of the original cultivar ‘Hakuhou’ at 12 SSR loci, indicating that ‘Hikawa Hakuhou’ was not a bud sport mutant of ‘Hakuhou’. Four cultivars that presumably originated from chance seedlings, i.e., ‘Abe Hakutou’, ‘Kawanakajima Hakutou’, ‘Kouyou Hakutou’ and ‘Shimizu Hakutou’, shared one allele with their putative parent ‘Hakutou’ at each SSR locus. SSR analysis suggested that these 4 cultivars were not bud sport mutants, but offsprings of ‘Hakutou’. It was concluded that SSR markers could be effectively utilized for parentage analysis in Japanese cultivated peaches.