Yong-Uk Shin

A molecular technique for selection of self-compatible varieties of Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai)

The pear cultivar ‘Osa-Nijisseiki’ (S2Ssm4; sm = stylar-part mutant) has been used as a parent to breed self-compatible cultivars that produce excellent fruits. However, determination of the self-compatibility of ‘Osa-Nijisseiki’ offspring requires a lot of time, 6 years or more, by conventional cross breeding. We have designed a rapid reliable method for the identification of self-compatible varieties of ‘Osa-Nijisseiki’ offspring based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) with S-allele specific restriction endonucleases. By using this method, 8 self-compatible varieties were selected among 16 selections resulting from a cross between the self-compatible cultivar ‘Osa-Nijisseiki’ (S2Ssm4) and the self-incompatible cultivars ‘Niitaka’ (S3S9), ‘Whasan’ (S3S5), ‘Chuwhangbae’ (S4S6). The S-genotypes of 16 ‘Osa-Nijisseiki’ offsprings were also determined.