Pears are the third most grown temperate fruit species worldwide. They are divided in two main groups: European and Asian. In this study 30 genotypes of genus Pyrus (five European cultivars, 16 Asian cultivars, three rootstocks, four interspecific hybrids, one landrace cultivar from Czech Republic (‘Krvavka’), Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge. and one intergeneric hybrid (Cydomalus) were tested. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique was used for genetical analysis of these samples. Twelve primer combinations generated a number of 1251 fragments of which 1064 were polymorphic with an average polymorphism of 85.3%. Dendrogram, created by using UPGMA method, revealed distinct genetic relationship between European and Asian pear groups. Intergeneric hybrid Cydomalus was separated in dendrogram from both groups. The level of similarity coefficient between European and Asian pears was 0.75. Despite the fact that Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge. was clustered in European pear group the average similarity coefficient between European pear group and Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge. (0.7704) was very similar to similarity coefficient between Asian pear group and Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge. (0,768). Thus, botanic species Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge. can be probably considered as an intermediate genotype between European and Asian pears. The cultivar ‘Talgarskaja Krasavica’ (chance seedling of ‘Forest Beauty’), which pomologically belongs to European pear group was clustered in dendrogram together with the interspecific hybrid ‘Wu Jiu Xinag’ (‘Ya Li’ × ‘Bartlett’) which on the other hand, pomologically belongs to Asian pear group. Thus, due to its position in dendrogram the cultivar ‘Talgarskaja Krasavica’ could be considered as an interspecific hybrid.

 

 

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This abstract was accepted to be presented at the conference entitled “40 Years of Horticulture Education in Cluj-Napoca†Cluj-Napoca, September 27, 2017, being included in ‘Book of Abstracts’ of this special-anniversary event (http://conference.shst.ro). All accepted papers will be published in a special issue of Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca journal.