Assessment of genetic diversity and relationships among some sweet cherry cultivars using AFLP™ markers

Abstract

Sweet cherry is an economically important crop in Turkey but the relationship among Turkish and foreign cherry cultivars has not been properly determined yet. In this study, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) has been utilized to analyze genetic diversity among 22 sweet cherry cultivars including some Turkish and foreign cultivars using total genomic DNA. Four EcoRI and MseI primer combinations with three base selective nucleotides extension generated 30 polymorphic AFLP fragments. A UPGMA dendrogram was constructed to demonstrate the genetic relationship among the sweet cherry cultivars. No two cultivars shared identical AFLP banding patterns, indicating all local Turkish cultivars were unique. UPGMA analysis clustered the sweet cherry cultivars analyzed in this study into four putative groups. For further characterization of Turkish sweet cherry, additional cherry cultivars will be analyzed using AFLP and SSR markers.