S-Genotype Profiles of Turkish Apricot Germplasm

In flowering plants, gametophytic self-incompatibility, controlled by a single locus with several allelic variants, is one of the major problems preventing self-fertilization. Among fruit trees, apricots show to a high degree self-incompatibility, especially in Middle-Asian and Iranian-Caucasian eco-geographical groups. In the present study, self-(in)compatibility characteristics of a total of 236 apricot genotypes (218 Turkish and 18 foreign) found within the National Apricot Germplasms of Apricot Research Institute in Malatya, Turkey was studied. Analyses were carried out by using four primer pairs (SRc-F and SRc-R, EM-PC2consFD and EM-PC3consRD, AprSC8-R and PaConsI-F, AprFBC8-F and AprFBC8-R). A total of 11 S-RNase alleles (S2, S3, S6, S7, S8, S9, S11, S12, S13, S20 and Sc) were determined in the 236 apricot genotypes. As Turkish and foreign apricot genotypes are determined mostly self-incompatible, the data obtained hereby might be of good use for apricot breeding programs and more practically, for apricot new plantations; thus pollinator cultivars should be considered when self-incompatible apricot cultivars are being used.