Genetic diversity in fruiting-mei, apricot, plum and peach revealed by AFLP analysis

High-throughput amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis, employing a two-dye automated DNA sequencer, was used to genotype accessions of four important Prunus spp. fruit crops in China, fruiting-mei (P mume), apricot (P armeniaca), plum (P salicina, and P ussuriensis) and peach (P persica). Nine primer pairs generated a total of 2,089 AFLP bands, of which 94.4% were polymorphic. Levels of polymorphism and the genetic relationships among the crops were studied. The fixation index (F-ST) of the four different fruit trees ranged from 0.53 - 0.82, and the average genetic diversity (AGD) in these species ranged from 3.2% to 12.8%. These four stone fruit species could be clustered into four clear groups on a phylogenetic tree based on bootstrap analysis. Phylogenetically, fruiting-mei was shown to be closest to apricot and most distant from peach.