Genetic Relationships of Pyrus Species and Cultivars Native to East Asia Revealed by Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA Markers

By Yuanwen Teng, K. Tanabe, F. Tamura, A. Itai. 2002

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A total of 118 Pyrus sp. (pear) and cultivars native mainly to east Asia were subjected to randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis to evaluate genetic variation and relationships among the accessions. Two hundred fifty RAPD markers were scored from 20 decamer primers. RAPD markers specific to species were identified. Clustering analysis revealed two divisions: one comprising cultivars of P. communis L., and the other including all accessions of Pyrus native to east Asia. The grouping of the species and cultivars by RAPD data largely agrees with morphological pear taxonomy. However, some noted incongruence existed between two classification methods. Pyrus calleryana Dcne. clustered together with P. koehnei Schneid., P. fauriei Schneid. and P. dimorphophylla Makino. Pyrus betulaefolia Bge. clustered with P. ×hopeiensis Yu and P. ×phaeocarpa Rehd. A noncultivated clone of P. aromatica Kikuchi et Nakai grouped with P. aromatica cultivars. Pyrus hondoensis Nakai et Kikuchi and cultivars of P. ussuriensis Max. formed a single group. Some accessions from Korea (named Korean pear) had species-specific RAPD markers and comprised an independent group. Most of the Chinese white pears clustered together with most of the Chinese sand pears. Based on the present results, the new nomenclature P. pyrifolia var. sinensis (Lindley) Teng et Tanabe for Chinese white pear was suggested. Most accessions of Japanese pears fell into one main group, whereas pear cultivars from Kochi Prefecture of Japan subclustered with some Chinese sand pears and one accession from Korea. Our results infer that some local Japanese pear cultivar populations may have been derived from cultivars native to Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku region, and that the latter may have been introduced from ancient China and/or Korea. The genus Pyrus, with the common name pear, belongs to the subfamily Pomoideae, and the family Rosaceae. The basic Pyrus stock is believed to have arisen during the Tertiary period in the mountainous regions in western and southwestern People's Re- public of China (China) (Rubtsov, 1944). From the geographical point of view, pears are traditionally divided into two native groups: Occidental pears and Oriental pears (Layne and Qua- mme, 1975; Lee, 1948; Rubtsov, 1944). The exact number of species in the genus Pyrus varies among taxonomists. According to Rubtsov (1944), the Occidental pears include over 20 species found in Europe, northern Africa, Asia Minor, Iran, central Asia, and Afghanistan; the majority of cultivars grown in these areas have originated primarily from Pyrus communis. The Oriental pears include 12 to 15 species, distributed from the Tian-Shan and Hindu Kush Mountains eastward to Japan. In a detailed taxo- nomic study of Pyrus, Challice and Westwood (1973) suggested 21 primary species and four geographic groups of species, of which 10 species native to east Asia were assessed. These east Asian pears are distributed primarily in China, Japan, and Korea. China contains a majority of the most important pear species native to east Asia, and is also a world leader in pear production. Received for publication 20 Feb. 2001. Accepted for publication 3 Oct. 2001. We gratefully acknowledge Zhicheng Lu and Yufeng Cao, Research Institute of Pomology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Liaoning Province, People's Republic of China, and Yinsheng Li and Chunhui Ma, Gansu Pomology Institute, Gansu Province, People's Republic of China for their generous assis- tance and cooperation in taking pear leaf samples. This work was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to Yuanwen Teng, Grant-in Aid 98464 for JSPS fellows from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, Japan. The cost of publishing this paper was defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. Under postal regulations, this paper therefore must be hereby marked advertisement solely to indicate this fact.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant Science

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