The genomes of both ancestors of tart cherries have now been published. The JKI played a leading role in the study of the genome of the steppe cherry. Tart cherries (Prunus cerasus L.) such as the well-known variety 'Schattenmorelle' are traditionally found in almost every allotment garden. Whether on a cake, as jam or juice, the fruit enjoys great popularity. Tart cherries are descended from the sweet cherry (P. avium) and the steppe cherry (P. fruticosa). A research group from the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), the Universities of Budapest, Greifswald and Hohenheim, and the Dutch company KeyGene has now succeeded in decoding the building blocks of the steppe cherry's genetic material.
©Wöhner/JKI
The study, published in the journal Genomics, describes the novel technology used to generate long DNA sequences, which enabled the researchers to sequence the largest cherry genome to date, with a length of 1.1 billion bases. The eight base chromosomes derived from this sequence give a total size of 366 million bases.
"With this first genome sequence of the steppe cherry, it is possible to better understand the evolutionary development of the tart cherry," says first author Dr. Thomas Wöhner from the JKI Technical Institute for Fruit Breeding Research in Dresden-Pillnitz. Based on the genetic code, the researchers can now assign genes of the steppe cherry in the genome of the tart cherry. This knowledge can be put to practical use, as it can now be used to make better predictions about positive or negative traits when breeding new sour cherry varieties. "This will help us make tart cherry more robust against diseases and fit for climate change in the future," Wöhner says.
©Wöhner/JKI
Background
Tart cherries originated in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. One ancestor, the sweet cherry, is widespread throughout Europe and Asia Minor. The steppe cherry, as the second ancestor, is native to the vast steppes of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. As early as the late 1960s, it was demonstrated that the tart cherry is a natural bastard of the steppe cherry and the sweet cherry. While the two parental species initially evolved independently of each other, hybridization later occurred by chance in areas where both species occur simultaneously, resulting in our present-day tart cherries.
Consequently, the tart cherry genome consists of two parts. One half of the chromosomes originates from the sweet cherry, while the other half originates from the steppe cherry. The genome of the sweet cherry has already been sequenced. For the steppe cherry, such a genome sequence was missing, until now. With the new genome sequence, all important genetic data are now available to draw conclusions about the structure of the tart cherry genome.
Source: www.julius-kuehn.de