Allelic Diversity in Apple Germplasm for Fruit Quality and Scab Resistance Using SSR Markers

The present investigation entitled “Allelic diversity in apple germplasm for fruit quality and scab resistance using SSR markers” was conducted in division of plant biotechnology, SKUAST-K, Shalimar during the year 2018. In the present study, four SSR markers namely Md-ACS-1, Md-ACO-1, ALO-7 and AM-19 were used for screening of 40 apple cultivars presently under cultivation in SKUAST-K for quality and scab resistance. The results revealed that out of 40 cultivars evaluated, 3 were found homozygous (ACS-1-2/2), 17 were heterozygous (ACS-1-1/2) and 10 were homozygous (ACS-1-1/1), while as no amplification of ACS-1 was found for 10 cultivars. Similarly, for Md-ACO-1, 3 cultivars were found homozygous, 35 as heterozygous and 2 did not show any amplification. As far as presence of Vf gene conferring resistance against scab disease, ALO-7 amplified at 820bp and 570bp alleles, 570 bp fragment was observed in resistant genotypes and was absent in susceptible genotypes, while the 820 amplicon was observed in both resistant and susceptible genotypes. The markers AM19 led to the amplification of 520 bp fragment in few cultivars.