Assessment of genetic diversity within sour cherry clones

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Harvested yields of sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) cultivar ‘Stevnsbaer’ clones grown in Denmark have been highly variable over the years, yet some propagated derived trees selected from within the two widely grown clones of ‘Stevnsbaer’ clone ‘Birgitte’ and clone ‘Viki’ have consistently produced higher yields.
A number of these selections were evaluated for yield and genomic differences to investigate variation between and within the ‘Birgitte’ and ‘Viki’ clones. Variation in yield was mainly found at the clonal level.
The clone ‘Viki’ was found to be the highest yielding with an average of 20 kg/tree compared to only 7.0 kg/tree from clone ‘Birgitte’. The selected trees derived from within clone ‘Birgitte’ had a significantly higher, average yield over 7 years compared to the original ‘Birgitte’, indicating that such within-clone
selection may be a possible approach for selection of improved breeding material. However, no differences in allele profile were found between or within the clones, calling into question the extent of the available genetic diversity and indicating that the observed variance in yield may have to be explained by other
genetic mechanisms, including epigenetic change.
Original languageEnglish
JournalScientia Horticulturae
Volume164
Pages (from-to)556-562
Number of pages7
ISSN0304-4238
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

ID: 95076471