Plant & Animal Genome VI Conference

P88

GENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF ASIAN CHESTNUT VARIETIES ASSESSED BY AFLP

1. National Institute of Fruit Tree Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
2. Faculty of Agriculture, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo 657, Japan

Genetic diversity of 24 Asian chestnut varieties, including 14 Japanese chestnuts (Castanea crenata) originated in Japan or Korean Peninsula, 6 Chinese chestnuts (C. mollissima) and the other 4 Castanea species, was taxonomically characterized by AFLP analysis using 9 primer combinations. About 60% of amplified fragments (165/271) were polymorphic bands which were observed on intra-species as well as inter-species. All varieties were discriminated with the differences of more than 14 bands and a lot of variety-specific AFLP fragments could be obtained. Parsimonious tree of chestnut varieties was constructed by parsimony analysis based on polymorphisms. According to the parsimonious tree revealed by AFLP, all C. crenata cultivars originated in Japan were grouped into the same cluster with Shibaguri varieties which was considered as the native species. In contrast, C. crenata cultivars in Korean Peninsula were grouped neither with Japanese cultivars nor with each other. These results suggested the possibility that cultivated chestnut in Japan could be derived from Shibaguri or the possibility that both could be originated from the same ancestor. Furthermore the genetic diversity among C. mollissima and the genetic relationship between C. crenata and C. mollissima were discussed.