Genetic and Pomological Analyses of Apple Germplasm in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina's specific geographic location and history have contributed greatly to its diverse autochthonous apple germplasm, which has until now never been adequately investigated. Although readily available molecular markers such as SSR markers can be a very good tool for estimating the genetic diversity of this material, the value of these cultivars for future breeding purposes cannot be determined without examining commercially important pomological characteristics. In this research, eleven autochthonous and four well-known international apple cultivars, all maintained in the largest B&H ex situ collection, were analyzed using 10 SSR markers. Also, pomological characteristics such as fruit weight, fruit size and shape, harvest time and color of skin were examined on thirty fruits for each cultivar during a three year experiment. A principal coordinate analysis and a cluster analysis were conducted in order to determine the relationships among cultivars. Microsatellite analyses revealed high diversity among the eleven autochthonous apple cultivars which did not cluster closely with the international ones. The total number of detected alleles exceeded 90 for the 10 microsatellites. Five genotypes were confirmed triploids and no synonyms were detected. Also, analyses of commercial pomologic characteristics showed high variation among the autochthonous apple cultivars and some exhibited desirable traits.