Genetic mapping in Amasya apple by SSR markers

`Amasya? apple is one of the most important local apple cultivars of Turkey due to its favorite flavor and aroma. This study aimed to construct genetic map of Amasya apple cultivar for the marker assisted breeding in the future breeding programs in apple. The 180 F1 plants from `Kaşel-37? x `Delbarestivale? cross and SSR markers were used to construct the genetic map. Two separate genetic linkage maps for parents were constructed by applying the strategy of `double pseudo-testcross?. In addition, the reference map was also created by common SSR makers. In this research, 388 SSR markers were mapped from 363 segregated SSR primer pairs. In `Kaşel-37? genetic map, a total of 299 SSR markers were mapped of which 93% were codominant and 7% were dominant markers, and average marker number per linkage group was 17.58. A total of 273 markers were mapped in the genetic map of `Delbarestivale? cultivar, of which 93% were codominant and 7% were dominant markers, and average marker number per linkage group was 16.05. In the reference map, 196 common SSR markers were mapped and average marker number per linkage group was 11.52. `Kaşel-37? genetic map had 17 linkage groups spanning 1397.9 cM length with a mean marker density of 4.68 cM, whereas `Delbarestivale? genetic map had 1346 cM length with a mean marker density of 4.93. Reference genetic map had 1269.5 cM length with a mean marker density of 6.48. As a result, one of the most dense genetic map of apple by SSR markers was consrtucted in this study. In the future genetic mapping studies, mapping of new markers from different marker methods will be useful to obtain high density map in Amasya apple.