engleski

Genetic diversity of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) populations from three cultivation areas in Submediterranean Croatia

Sweet chetsnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) has been cultivated in semi-wild orchards of Sub- Mediterranean Croatia for centuries. Two such historical cultivation area are Lovran and Lovrin on the Istrian peninsula, while the third one is located on the island Cres. From these three cultivation areas, both grafted and ungrafted individual trees were sampled. Six genomic simple sequence repeat (gSSR) and nine EST-derived SSR (EST-SSR) loci were used to explore population diversity and clonality, as well as the population genetic structure. Five closely related clones have been found within the grafted group. Within the ungrafted group, many hybrids resulting from spontaneous cross-pollination between the cultivated and wild chestnut have been found. Thus, the three analyzed populations have varying levels of diversity and clonality. The analyzed semi-wild orchards defined by a diverse genetic structure represent a hotspot for further selection and could result in the creation of locally adapted, high-yielding varieties of chestnut.

microsatellites ; population structure ; semi-wild orchards ; sweet chestnut ; traditional varieties

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