IDENTIFICATION OF A POLLINATION-VARIANT ASTRINGENT PERSIMMON

‘Huashi 1’ has been cultivated as a pollination-constant non-astringent (PCNA) type persimmon in China. It has the property of high yield, big fruit, and bearing a lot of male flowers, which makes it of relevant value both commercially and in breeding. Nevertheless, according to our knowledge it is probably not a PCNA type persimmon, so attempts were made to make clear its origin and astringent type. Its soluble tannin content and tannin cell size were compared with cultivars whose astringent types were already known. Results showed it was neither a PCNA nor a pollination-constant astringent (PCA) type persimmon. We also observed its seeds distribution and the influence of the seeds to the fruits’ deastringency, and confirmed that it was a pollination-variant astringent (PVA) type persimmon. Several molecular markers including RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA), ISSR (Inter-simple sequence repeat), IRAP (Inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism), REMAP (Retrotransposon- microsatellite amplified polymorphism), SSAP (Sequence-specific amplified polymorphism) and AFLP (Amplified fragment length polymorphism) were used or developed in our research group on ‘Huashi 1’; results showed it has a closer relationship to persimmon originated in Japan, but it is distant from persimmon originated in China. In conclusion, ‘Huashi 1’ was classified as a PVA type persimmon originated in Japan and it had big potential in persimmon breeding.