Data from: Plum germplasm in Croatia and neighbouring countries assessed by microsatellites and DUS descriptors

At a certain period during the last century, former Yugoslavia (which
among others used to include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia)
was the biggest producer of plums in the world. Traditional plum
cultivars, still grown in this region, represent a mixture of several
species including: European plums (Prunus domestica L.), mirabelles
(Prunus insititia var. syriaca (Borkh.) Koehne), and damsons (P. insititia
L.). The basic problem with the utilization of this plum germplasm, either
for cultivation or breeding purposes, is a lack of reliable pomology data
or reference repositories that would enable positive identification of
cultivars. In this study, 62 plum accessions (42 traditional Croatian
accessions, six well-known traditional accessions collected from Serbia
and Bosnia, and 14 international, reference cultivars) were assessed using
microsatellite markers and distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS)
plum descriptors. Nine primer pairs amplified 168 distinct alleles, or on
average 18.7 alleles per locus. A significant differentiation between the
traditional plum cultivars and international reference cultivars, was
detected through Fst (Fst = 0.022; P < 0.0001), analyses of
molecular variance (AMOVA; f CT = 0.054; P < 0.05) and later
confirmed by a factorial correspondence analysis (FCA). Bayesian method
enabled the classification of mirabelle, damson, and European plum
genotypes. Principal component analyses, based on 22 morphologic traits,
managed to separate mirabelle accession from the European plum and damson
accessions, but there was a general lack of correlation between the
observed morphologic traits and the molecular data. Results of this study
indicate that traditional Croatian accessions represent a diverse and
underutilized plant genetic material, which should be conserved.

上世纪的某一时期，前南斯拉夫（彼时涵盖波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那、克罗地亚、塞尔维亚等地区）曾是全球最大的李子生产国。至今仍在该区域种植的传统李子栽培品种，由多个李属物种混合组成，包括欧洲李（Prunus domestica L.）、黄香李（Prunus insititia var. syriaca (Borkh.) Koehne）以及达姆森李（P. insititia L.）。
无论是用于栽培还是育种，该李子种质资源的利用均面临核心难题：缺乏可实现栽培品种精准鉴定的可靠果树学数据与参考种质库。
本研究针对62份李子种质材料展开评估，其中包含42份克罗地亚传统种质、6份采自塞尔维亚与波斯尼亚的知名传统种质，以及14份国际参考栽培品种，评估手段涵盖微卫星标记（microsatellite markers）与李子特异性、一致性和稳定性（Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability，简称DUS）描述符。
9对引物共扩增得到168个不同的等位基因，平均每个位点扩增出18.7个等位基因。
通过固定指数（Fst，Fst=0.022；P<0.0001）与分子方差分析（Analysis of Molecular Variance，简称AMOVA，f_CT=0.054；P<0.05），研究团队检测到传统李子栽培品种与国际参考栽培品种之间存在显著遗传分化，该结果随后通过因子对应分析（Factorial Correspondence Analysis，简称FCA）得到验证。
贝叶斯方法可实现黄香李、达姆森李与欧洲李基因型的分类。
基于22项形态性状的主成分分析，能够将黄香李种质与欧洲李、达姆森李种质区分开来，但观测到的形态性状与分子数据之间普遍缺乏相关性。
本研究结果表明，克罗地亚传统李子种质资源属于遗传多样性丰富且尚未得到充分开发利用的植物遗传材料，亟需开展保护工作。