Investigation on Genetic Variation of Sour Cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) Populations for Selection of Dwarf Genotypes Using Morphological Characters

E. Ganji Moghadam,; A. Mokhtarian,; M. R. Kiani,

doi:10.22092/spij.2017.110695

Investigation on Genetic Variation of Sour Cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) Populations for Selection of Dwarf Genotypes Using Morphological Characters

Authors

10.22092/spij.2017.110695

Abstract

Prunus cerasus L. is one of the principal rootstocks used for sweet and sour cherries in Iran and world widely. This study was conducted at Khorasan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center to investigate the genetic variability in sour cherry populations collected from three provinces of Iran, and identification of sour cherry dwarf genotypes for cherries. Morphological characters of ten sour cherry populations were studied. One-way analysis of variance, performed for determination of genetic diversity of different regions populations indicated significant differences for most traits. Factor analysis detected four factors. In the first factor, crown height, size index, crown width, trunk cross sectional area, stone weight and crown volume had highest factor loading. Internode length was the second most important factor. In the third factor, leaf area and in the fourth factor, bark to wood ratio and first branching were important. These factors contained 81.49 percent of total variance. Correlation coefficients showed significant correlation between tree vigor, crown width, crown volume, size index, trunk cross sectional area, internode length, stone weight and bark to wood ratio. Sour cherry seedlings showed high variability in vigor. Based on the size index, sour cherry seedlings were classified into four groups of very dwarf, dwarf, semi dwarf and standard.

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