Phylogenetic relationships among Pyrus pyrifolia and P. communis detected by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and conserved rDNA sequences

In this work, the phylogenetic relationships among among Pyrus pyrifolia and Pyrus communis were evaluated using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and the conserved rDNA sequences. The patterns observed distinguished between genotypes and their analysis established the approach to phenetic classification within the Pyrus genus based on DNA markers, clustering the genotypes according to their geographic origin. In RAPD analysis, UPGMA separated the cultivars into two main groups; 19 P. pyrifolia cultivars and 6 P. communis cultivars. On the other hand, the conserved 18S rDNA nucleotide sequences of the amplified fragment were completely determined. In this study, the phenogram resulting from the Neighbor-Joining analysis separated the cultivars into four main groups. The first group included 18 P. pyrifolia cultivars and the second cluster comprises 5 P. communis cultivars. 'Sunwhang', which belonged to P. pyrifolia, was excluded from the first group and giving rise to the third group. 'Conference', P. communis cultivar, made up a forth group.