GENETIC DIVERSITY OF LOW AND MID-CHILL PEACH CULTIVARS

Little is known about the genetic diversity of low- and mid-chill peach germplasm. Microsatellite markers offer a powerful tool for measuring genetic diversity. A set of 53 genotypes representing cultivars and selections from the low and mid-chill breeding programs and 5 cultivars from the high-chill peach breeding program at North Carolina State University were selected for analysis. The cultivars were compared to the landrace cultivars Okinawa, Strickland, Red Ceylon and the species Prunus kansuensis Rehder and P. dulcis (Mill) D.A. Webb. Analysis of the SSR data produced genetic diversity values in the range of 0.5 in both the entire peach data set and the modern cultivar data set.