Analysis of genetic diversity in Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.) based on REMAP and IRAP molecular markers

Japanese apricot (mei) originated in China, and was divided into two types: fruiting mei and flowering mei, and fruiting mei can be divided by their pericarp into green mei, red mei and white mei. 84 cultivars (43 fruiting mei and 41 flowering mei) were used in this study. To identify their genetic relationships, genetic diversity analysis using REMAP with IRAP techniques was performed. The results showed that the observed number of alleles was 1.9955 in Japanese apricot populations, the effective number of alleles was 1.4887, Nei's gene diversity was 0.2910, and Shannon's information index was 0.4465. Eighty-four Japanese apricot varieties could be divided into 18 groups at the similarity coefficient of 0.743, and 4 groups at the similarity coefficient of 0.705 with the UPGMA cluster method. Fruiting mei and flowering mei clustered into different groups which showed that the complexity of inheritance and the extent of evolution were different. PopGen32 analysis suggested that Japanese fruiting mei would be introduced from Zhejiang province in China and Japanese flowering mei from Jiangsu province in China.

► Establish molecular marker system of REMAP and IRAP in Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.
► There were obvious differences of genetics between ‘Dayezhugan’ and ‘Xiaoyezhugan’ with similar morphologic characters.
► Japanese fruiting mei would be introduced from Zhejiang province of China and flowering mei from Jiangsu province of China.