Identification of S-haplotypes of European cultivars of sour cherry

ABSTRACTThe sour cherry is known to exhibit the phenomenon of gametophytic self-incompatibility which prevents self-fertilization. In sour cherry, besides self-incompatible cultivars, there often occur self-compatible cultivars. This is due to the occurrence of natural mutations of the S-RNase or SFB genes and, consequently, loss of functionality of S-alleles. Here we present the results of the identification of S-haplotypes of 21 cultivars of sour cherry from various regions of Europe. The analyses were performed using methods based on the amplification of intron I and intron II of the S-RNase gene and fragments specific to the individual alleles of the S-RNase or SFB genes. The tested cultivars were found to contain 15 S-haplotypes: S1, S1ʹ, S4, S6, S6m, S6m2, S9, S12, S13, S13ʹ, S26, S35, S36a, S36b, and S36b2. The most frequently occurring S-haplotypes were S13ʹ (61.9%), S36a (57.1%), and S26 (47.6%). On the basis of the results, 17 of the 21 cultivars were deduced to be self-compatible. The results w...