AFLP analysis of genetic diversity in Turkish green plum accessions (Prunus cerasifera L.) adapted to the Mediterranean region

The Anatolian region of Turkey with many ecogeographical locations harbours a rich but genetically uncharacterized plum germplasm. In this study, the genetic diversity in economically important green plums (Prunus cerasifera) grown in the Mediterranean region of Turkey was assessed using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis. Overall, a relatively low genetic diversity with AFLP genetic similarity values ranging from 0.829 to 0.985 was found among the accessions studied. However, the majority of green plum genotypes derived from an ecologically distinct location within the Mediterranean region were more diverse genetically than those from other locations. In an effort to further characterize this germplasm, the same accessions were analyzed for a number of fruit quality traits. Overall, the results presented here provide useful information about the level of genetic diversity present among the previously uncharacterized plum accessions and identify germplasm that could be potentially superior to the currently cultivated plum genotypes in this plum growing region of Turkey.