Genetic diversity of apple trees in the old orchard of the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy оf Sciences of Belarus

Based on the sequence of the Golden Delicious apple genome, whose nucleotide sequence is located in the GenBank database, the design of molecular markers of SSR type that limit the area of tetra- and hexanucleotide repeats was carried out in silico. The most informative of them were selected, which showed clear peaks on capillary electrophoresis and made it possible to reveal a high level of polymorphism in certain apple genome regions. The developed SSR markers can be effectively used for the genetic diversity assession and DNA identification of apple varieties, establishment of the varietal correspondence. These markers were used to analyze the genetic diversity of apple trees in the old orchard of the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (CBG) where trees were planted from 1932 to 1940. It is shown that the trees growing in the garden are genetically close to old local varieties, as well as to individual foreign ones. It is established that among the trees of the CBG old orchard there are such varieties as Antonovka obyknovennaya, Minskoe, Papirovka. Wealthy, Melba, Bogatyr’. The obtained results will be used to save the genetic resources of the fruit crop valuable for the country, which is an apple tree, as well as to develop a design project of a new fruit plants collection-exposition when reconstructing the area of old plantings.

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