Loquat canker (Pseudomonas syringae pv. eriobotryae) is a serious disease of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), and no commercial cultivar in Japan is resistant to all strains of the disease. Loquat cultivar Shiromogi, which was selected from progeny seedlings of ‘Mogi’, is resistant to loquat canker Group C and has good fruit characteristics. This study was conducted to determine the inheritance of resistance to loquat canker Group C in ‘Shiromogi’. Seedlings produced from crosses between two resistant and 13 susceptible genotypes were classified as either resistant (R) or susceptible (S) based on the appearance of black–brown cankers ≈2 months after inoculation with a bacterial suspension of loquat canker Group C. Cross combinations between resistant parents ‘Champagne’ and ‘Shiromogi’ and selfing of ‘Shiromogi’ produced all resistant seedlings. Most crosses between ‘Shiromogi’ and susceptible parents either produced only susceptible seedlings or segregated for resistance in a ratio of 1 R:1 S. Seedlings produced by selfing two of the susceptible parents segregated in a ratio of 1 R:3 S. These results indicate that the resistance to loquat canker Group C of ‘Shiromogi’ is conferred by a single recessive gene, designated pse-c. Based on the crossing tests, we conclude that resistant parents ‘Shiromogi’ and ‘Champagne’ are homozygous for pse-c; the susceptible parents ‘Fukuharawase’, ‘Fusahikari’, ‘Gold Nugget’, ‘Kusunoki’, Nagasaki No. 2, ‘Tanaka’, ‘Tsukumo’, and ‘Yougyoku’ are homozygous for Pse-c; and the other susceptible parents in this experiment (‘Mogi’, ‘Nagasakiwase’, Nagasaki No. 3, ‘Taisho’, and 75-142) are heterozygous. Based on the pedigree of ‘Shiromogi’ and the results reported here, pse-c is probably derived from ‘Mogi’, a major cultivar in Japan.

The genetic variation of loquat (Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl.) was characterized by SSR markers developed from apple and pear, using 94 loquat accessions in Japan. Fourteen of the 24 SSR markers derived from apple could successfully produce amplified bands in loquat, whereas 10 of the 24 SSR markers derived from pear could generate amplified bands. Nine SSR markers were chosen for evaluation of the genetic diversity among 94 loquat accessions, including 61 cultivars from Japan and other countries and 33 natively grown accessions collected around Japan. A phenogram constructed using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages based on similarities between genotypes revealed two major groups. One group consisted mainly of cultivars from Japan and other countries, whereas the other group included only natively grown accessions. Some synonyms or mutants were found showing identical SSR genotypes. These results show that SSR markers can be utilized as reliable tools for genetic identification in loquat. The origins of current loquat cultivars in Japan are also discussed.

Loquat canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. eriobotryae, is a serious disease of loquat [Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl.] in some countries such as Japan. Therefore, improved canker resistance is an important objective for loquat breeding. The resistance to loquat canker Group C in descendants of ‘Shiromogi’ was expressed only in homozygotes with a recessive gene at a single locus, which was designated pse-c/pse-c. ‘Champagne’, which is distantly related to ‘Shiromogi’, is another cultivar with resistance to Group C. The inheritance of this resistance in progenies of crosses between ‘Champagne’ and susceptible cultivars was examined. The offspring seedlings from 14 crosses between ‘Champagne’ (pse-c/pse-c) and 12 susceptible cultivars (Pse-c/Pse-c or Pse-c/pse-c) were classified into two types of resistant and susceptible. All of the hybrid progenies between ‘Champagne’ (pse-c/pse-c) and Pse-c/Pse-c parents showed two types of resistant and susceptible. The proportion of resistant offspring showed great differences significantly, depending on the hybrid combinations. It ranged from 0.203 to 0.596 with an average of 0.407. It indicated that the resistance was controlled by one or more additional genes or loci other than the Pse-c (pse-c) locus. In addition, the proportion of resistant offspring from crosses between ‘Champagne’ (pse-c/pse-c) and Pse-c/pse-c parents ranged from 0.463 to 0.701 (and averaged 0.601), which seriously deviated from the segregation of 1:1, indicating that the segregation was both Mendelian and polygenic in a threshold character. The proportion of resistant seedlings cannot be predicted by the phenotype and the genotype in the Pse-c (pse-c) locus. Therefore, the general combining ability of ‘Champagne’ resulting from the additional gene effect was estimated, which was 0.407 and 0.101 for ‘Champagne’ × Pse-c/Pse-c and ‘Champagne’ × Pse-c/pse-c cultivars, respectively. The gene effect of susceptible cultivars ranged from –0.204 (‘Yougyoku’) to +0.189 (‘Togoshi’) for ‘Champagne’ × Pse-c/Pse-c cultivars and from –0.138 (‘Taisho’) to +0.089 (‘Nagasakiwase’) for ‘Champagne’ × Pse-c/pse-c cultivars.

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