IDENTIFICATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONG SOME PEARS CULTIVARS WITH ISSR MARKERS

This study identified genetic diversity in pear cultivars using ISSR techniques. In breeding programs, molecular markers play an important role. Molecular markers are the most efficient tools for the study of taxonomy, genetic variability, phylogenetic analysis, gene tags, gene localization and development of new cultivars. ISSR techniques were used in the identification of the genetic diversity of 10 pear cultivars. Five out of the used primers in this study amplified clear and reproductible bands. The ISSR primers produced 51 bands, and 45 of them were polymorphic, with an average of 10.2 amplicons/primer. The size of the fragments varied from 200 to 1250 bp. The polymorphic bands, registered per primer ranged from 6 (844) to 11 (primer UBC 830). The percentage polymorphism was between 83.33 for UBC808 and 100% for primer 844. Degree of DNA polymorphism was estimated at 89.54% (ISSR). PIC registered values between 0.34 to 844 and 0.75 for UBC814. The primer 844 presented values of discrimination index (PI) 2.06. The obtained results will be useful to serve plant breeding programs.