In this research, 36 pear tree accessions represented by different species, hybrids, and cultivar selections were analyzed through RAPD. Each primer presented 10 to 19 bands, 26 primers have provided 250 polymorphic bands from a total of 353. The OPC02, OPC08, OPD02, OPD19, OPD20 and OPE06 primers have identified specific bands for the oriental pears and OPA01, OPA11, OPC08, OPD04, OPD09 and OPD15, for the occidental pears. The obtained dendogram was confirmed by the principal coordinate analysis originating three principal groups: 1) All the pears originated by IAC, like 'Seleta', 'Triunfo', 'Primorosa', 'Tenra', IAC 16-41, 'Centenária', besides of 'William's', 'Packham's Triumph', 'D'água', 'Hood', 'M. Sieboldt', 'Kieffer', 'Branca Francesa' and 'Schimidt'. 2) The oriental pears, such as ''Okusankichi', 'Shinseiki', 'Atago', 'Hakko', 'Hosui', 'Nijiseki', 'Kosui' and 'Ya-li', besides 'Nodji', 'Limeira' and all the IAC selections from 193, 293 and 393 series. 3) All the rootstock from the Taiwan series (P. calleryana D.) and 'Manshu Mamenashi' (P. betulaefolis B.). It became evident that IAC cultivars have higher genetic relationship with the occidental pears (Pyrus communis L.) than with the oriental pears. This fact is observed despite the fact that the IAC cultivars coming from 'Hood', material suspected to be an interspecific hybrid between P. communis L. and P. serotina R. These results confirm the importance the usefulness of the RAPD markers in identifying cultivars, selections, and hybrids belonging to different botanical groups, showing that RAPD markers are an important tool on the study of genetic diversity and genetic resource management of pears.
Pear tree; Pyrus; molecular markers; RAPD; fingerprinting; germplasm; IAC cultivars; oriental pear; occidental pear
