Relationships among Crataegus accessions sampled from Hatay, Turkey, as assessed by fruit characteristics and RAPD

Abstract

The genus Crataegus known as hawthorns, is the largest genus among the Maloideae, which comprises 265 species. Turkey is one of the genetic centers of Crataegus and there are more than 20 species found in Turkey. The fruits of Crataegus are used as food and have high flavonoid, vitamin C, glycoside, anthocyanidin, saponin, tannin, and antioxidant levels. In this study, we attempted to characterize 15 Crataegus accessions sampled from Hatay, located in Eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. The accessions belonged to several species; C. aronia (L.) DC. var. aronia, C. aronia var. dentata Browicz, C. aronia var. minuta Browicz, C. monogyna Jacq. subsp. azarella (Griseb.) Franco, and C. orientalis Pall. ex M. Bieb. var. orientalis. Fruit characteristics of the accessions exhibited considerable variation. The multivariate, principle component and cluster analyses indicated that the accessions belonged to three groups: (1) C. aronia var. arona accessions;(2) C. aronia var. dentata accessions; and, (3) C. monogyna subsp. azarella and C. orientalis var. orientalis accessions. The principle component analysis results also revealed that the first three components explained 46, 21, and 14% of the variation, comprising a total of 81%. The fruit length and width, leaf area, and soluble solids contents were highly correlated characteristics for the first three components. The 19 RAPD primers generated a total of 107 bands, where 76 of these were polymorphic. The molecular data analyses by principle coordinate and clustering showed similar results to those of pomological characteristics. There were three groups, (1) C. aronia var. arona accessions;(2) C. aronia var. dentata accession; and, (3) C. monogyna subsp. azarella. C. orientalis var. orientalis accession grouped with C. aronia var. arona accessions. Therefore, it can be concluded that, overall, the diversity patterns of pomological and molecular data, generated by RAPD, for Crataegus are in good agreement and the accessions of C. aronia var. aronia, C. aronia var. minuta, C. monogyna subsp. azarella and C. orientalis var. orientalis accessions.

Population structure and genotypic variation of Crataegus pontica inferred by molecular markers

“…Some researchers from different parts of world, showed high genetic diversity in several species of Crataegus genus(Ferrazini et al, 2008;Dai . 2009;Yilmaz et al 2010;Serce et al 2011). The present study indicated that all of the markers used could be used for evaluation of genetic relationships, which ultimately would be helpful in characterization of various other endangered species belonging to genus Crataegus.…”

Fruit phytochemical composition and color parameters of 21 accessions of five Rosa species grown in North West Iran

“…reported average h *, c * and L * values of 33–83, 55–37 and 39–47 for R. dumalis and 41–104, 36–54 and 46–50 for R. rubiginosa respectively. Serçe et al . reported average L *, a *, b *, c * and h * values for R. canina species of 32–37, 29–35, 18–23, 35–42 and 30–36 respectively.…”

The genetic diversity of Sardinian myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) populations

“…The development of DNA-based marker technology has facilitated the assessment of genetic diversity in myrtle, as in so many other plant species. For example, AFLP genotyping has indicated that Italy represents a genetic transition zone between the western and eastern ends of the Mediterranean Basin (Bruna et al 2007;Şerçe et al 2008;Albaladejo et al 2010). …”