DNA SSR fingerprinting analysis among cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus L.) types

Cherry laurel (Laurocerasus officinalis Roemer Syn: Prunus laurocerasus L.) is a perennial wild fruit plant that is widely distributed in and around South-Eastern Black Sea, Marmara Sea, the Caspian Sea in the North and the East. However, breeding success of cherry laurel depends on early harvest, transient differences in taste, fruit color and flavor due to large number of biotic and abiotic stresses affecting the plants at different levels of growth during on and off seasons. This study is a preliminary research to identify differences among 40 cherry laurel genotypes; selected in East Marmara Region existing gardens and natural habitat based on their morphological and pomological differences. For further use in plant breeding, Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) technique was considered as a powerful technique to determine phylogenetic relations among individuals. In this study genetic similarities and differences in the 40 cherry laurel genotypes and two sweet cherry belonging to the Rosaceae family with one laurel that are distributed in the East Marmara region of Turkey were determined for the first time. A total of 12 SSR primers were used and analyzed according to the polymorphism. The eight primer pairs were proven to be sufficient to set unique fingerprint for the cultivars studied. The obtained dendrogram classified for the 40 cherry laurel (P. laurocerasus L.) and three other [(Prunus avium L. Cv. Star Giant, Prunus avium L. Cv. 0900 Ziraat and laurel (Laurus nobilis L.)] genotypes included in this study into two major groups and several subgroups.