Journal of Taiwan Agricultural Research

Author:Ien-Chie Wen* and Ching-Yi Chang

Abstract:

    Taiwan cherry (Prunus companulata Maxim.) with the reddest flowers and less chilling requirement in the world, is an important parent in breeding cherry and flowering cherry. In Flora of Taiwan, Taiwan cherry only has red, campanulate flowers record. In this research, we collected Taiwan cherry with white, pink and light to dark red, close to open campanulate and slightly upright flowers for futher breeding use. The genetic relationships of 29 flowering cherry cultivars were analyzed by using RAPD markers. A total of 300 primers were screened for their ability to produce strongly amplified products. Out of 11 primers amplified 147 DNA bands, 121 of which were polymorphic (82.3%). A dendrogram based on the UPGMA cluster analysis was constructed. All tested flowering cherry cultivars could be divided into four groups, including 2 groups of local varieties, 1 group of local high chill varieties with one Japanese variety and 1 group of Japanese varieties. Chorng bann shan ying 2 and 3 have the same polymorphic DNA band, indicating they may be the same variety. Chorng bann shan ying 2 and 3 and Chorng bann shan ying 4 had 93% similarity indexes, indicating the closest genetic relationship. Nevertheless, Lan-yeu yee Ying (Prunus grisea Kalkm) having 13% similarity indexes showed the farest genetic relationship with other tested flowering cherry varieties.

Key words:Flowering cherry, Germplasm evaluation, RAPD

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