engleski

Chlorophyll fluorescence and genetic markers as tools for drought tolerance screening in sour cherry cultivars

Sour cherry is important fruit in Croatian orchards with noted phenotypic heterogeneity in predominated cultivar Oblačinska. Identification of sour cherry genotypes tolerant to drought will enable the sustainability of fruit production with respect to the climate change in the future. Our goal was to find variability of 7 sour cherry genotypes on genetic and physiological level challenged by drought. 12 SSR and 10 AFLP markers revealed small genetic distance between cultivars Oblačinska, Maraska and Cigančica, and significant intracultivar variability of cv. Oblačinska was not found. Investigation of photosynthetic efficiency in drought conditions was conducted in greenhouse on micropropagated sour cherry plants. The leaf relative water content, OJIP test parameters which specify efficiency of the photosynthetic system based on measurements of chlorophyll a fluorescence and concentrations of photosynthetic pigments during the experiment classified genotypes according to drought tolerance. Genotype OS proved to be the most tolerant genotype, together with other clones of cv. Oblačinska (18, D6, and BOR) revealed a higher tolerance to drought compared to the cultivars Maraska, Cigančica and Kelleris 16. According to obtained results, chlorophyll fluorescence appears to be better tool for drought tolerance screening in sour cherry cultivars then genetic markers.

chlorophyll fluorescence; drought tolerance; genetic variability; leaf relative water content; photosynthetic pigments

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