• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.98-107
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• 2017

A DNA profile database was constructed to investigate the genetic relatedness of 72 germplasm samples of Pyrus and related cultivars using microsatellite markers. Three P. pyrifolia, four P. commus, and one P. betulifolia cultivars with different morphological traits were screened using 387 pairs of microsatellite primers. A core set of 11 primer pairs was selected to obtain 133 polymorphic amplified fragments meeting three criteria: high polymorphism information contents (PIC), high repeatability, and distinct allele patterns. The number of alleles per locus ranged between 4 and 22. Average PIC was 0.743 (range: 0.557 - 0.879). Cluster analysis using the unweighted pair - group method with arithmetical average (UPGMA) separated the 72 pear cultivars and germplasm samples into four major groups: Chinese, European pears, and a cluster of 55 Asian pears that could be reclassify into two subcluster, I - $1^{st}$ and II - $2^{nd}$, according to pedigree information. Almost all of the cultivars were discriminated by 11 microsatellite marker genotypes. The microsatellite DNA profile database may be utilized as tool to verify distinctness, uniformity, and stability between candidate cultivar, and to verify in the distinctness of existing cultivars.