Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers differentiate Turkish sour cherry germplasm

Eighty-one tetraploid cherry selections including sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) and its progenitor species P. fruticosa Pall. were compared using simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker analysis to determine the relationship of Turkish germplasm to germplasm collected from Russia and more northern and eastern regions of Europe. SSR fragments were produced with all the five primer pair cherry selection combinations. The cherry selections exhibited high levels of polymorphism with 5 to 20 different putative alleles amplified per primer pair. Primer pair PMS 49 isolated from sweet cherry showed a high level of polymorphism with 20 putative alleles identified. However, SSR analysis was not able to differentiate some selections. The Turkish selections tended to group together, separate from the other cherry selections. The Turkish germplasm did not exhibit many of the putative SSR alleles identified in the broader germplasm; however, it exhibited many novel alleles. This study demonstrates the importance of including germplasm from Turkey, an important ancestral region for sour cherry, when building a germplasm collection. It also demonstrates the value of SSR markers to identify genetic variation “gaps” within a germplasm collection.