S01 - Session P3 - Characterization of the genetic diversity of red-fleshed pear accessions from the Emilia-Romagna region

Authors: Stefano Tartarini, Lorenzo Bergonzoni, Sara Alessandri, Marco Pietrella, Giuseppina Caracciolo, Gianluca Baruzzi, Luca Dondini *

Germplasm collections represent a reservoir of traits and genes that might be used in breeding programs to cope with evolving market demands. To this extent, some old landraces still cultivated in the Apennine mountains in Italy possess the red fruit flesh trait. This paper reports the molecular analysis of 32 red-fleshed pear accessions, collected in different areas of the Apennines or maintained in CREA Forli and University of Bologna germplasm collections. These accessions were firstly profiled by 16 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. In addition, the resulting unique accessions were S-genotyped to confirm the kinship among these genotypes. The molecular analysis revealed both cases of synonymy and homonymy, and finally 6 unique genotypes were identified. These data will be used to improve the germplasm conservation strategy for this trait and it will represent the base for supporting future breeding programs.