Development and characterisation of diagnostic AFLP markers in Prunus persica for its response to peach tree short life syndrome

SummaryPeach tree short life (PTSL) is a complex disease syndrome caused by multiple factors, the genetics of which is unknown. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technology and bulked segregant analysis (BSA) were used to identify diagnostic markers for PTSL syndrome in peach rootstocks. Forty-four AFLPs were identified as potential PTSL-response associated markers based on the combined results of BSA and screening 11 PTSL tolerant, two intermediately-susceptible and two highly-susceptible genotypes with 60 polymorphic EcoRI/MseI primer combinations. The use of primer combination EcoRI+AC/MseI+CCC in conjunction with BSA, resulted in the identification of a single amplification product in the bulk DNA from ten susceptible trees that died from PTSL. This AFLP fragment was also detected in the intermediately-susceptible rootstock ‘Lovell’, the highly-susceptible rootstock ‘Nemared’, and in the highly-susceptible rootstock ‘Nemaguard’. This 96 bp AFLP fragment was absent in the DNA bulked from te...