Molecular characterisation of the national collection of Swiss cherry cultivars.

SummaryThis study aimed to assess the genetic diversity present among Swiss cherry accessions using the microsatellite markers (SSRs) proposed by the Prunus working group of the ECPGR-FN (European Collaborative Programme for Genetic Resources-Fruit Network) for varietal identification. We analysed 567 cherry accessions from nationwide collections of the fruit genetic resources inventory, and from the nuclear stock of Agroscope ACW, an archive of healthy, virus-free fruit varieties. Of the 20 SSRs tested, 14 resulted in polymorphic and useful multiplex mixes covering the entire cherry genome. The numbers of alleles per locus ranged from two to 21, which was generally higher than reported in the literature. Several groups of putative synonyms, with up to 16 accessions, were found, reducing the number of individual genetic profiles to 278. This represents a 49% reduction of the total number of genetically different accessions. Our results may therefore lead to making the maintenace of, and breeding from, Swi...