Plant genetic resources are generative and vegetative reproductive material of species with economical and/or social value, especially for the agriculture of the present and the future, with special emphasis on nutritional plants (FAO, 1983)

In commercial use : (for pharmaceutical industry, industrial biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology), companies can use genetic resources to develop specialty enzymes, enhanced genes, or small molecules.

These can be used in crop protection, drug development the production of specialized chemicals, or in industrial processing

It is also possible to insert genes into crops to obtain desirable traits that can enhance their productivity or resilience to disease

In non-commercial use Taxonomy Genetic resources are a key source of information for taxonomy, the science of describing and naming species. Taxonomic research provides crucial information for effective environmental conservation Conservation Genetic resources are the building blocks of life on earth. By developing our understanding of them, and conserving them, we can improve conservation of threatened species, and the communities who depend on them Using plant genetic resources refers to the process of researching their beneficial properties and using them to increase scientific knowledge and understanding, or to develop commercial products Plant genetic diversity has two types of values: (a) an immediate resource — genes and genotypes are valued for the particular characteristics they provide including agronomic characteristics such as pest resistance, drought tolerance, plant stature, as well as taste, colour and other factors of cultural importance. These are important to farmers using a particular variety, but they also have a major global significance in that they provide important characteristics for use in developing modern varieties; (b) as genetic diversity perse, that is, as an insurance against unknown future needs / conditions, thereby contributing to the stability of farming systems at the local, national and global levels.

Turkey is regarded as one of the most important diversity centers for cherries

Among 30 cherry taxa, Prunus avium, P. cerasus, P. mahaleb, P. laurocerasus, P. prostrata, P. brachypetala, P. incana, P. angustifolia, P. hippophaeoides and P. microcarpa are native to Turkey…it mean 10 species are native to Turkey

Among them, only P. avium and P. cerasus have gained commercial value in Turkey but P. mahaleb and P. laurocerasus are also important locally Prunus avium Prunus cerasus Prunus mahaleb Prunus laurocerasus Prunus angustifolia SSR analysis of cherry species

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Prunus avium Wild, cultivated Prunus cerasus Wild, semi-wild, cultivated Prunus mahaleb Wild Prunus laurocerasus Semi-wild Prunus angustifolia Wild • Turkey is origin of the Prunus avium • Dominate world sweet cherry production and export • Rich wild materials throughout country • The most developed fruit sector in Turkey (Strong private sector, use of dwarf/semi-dwarf rootstocks and modern orchard design) • Early, mid and late production capacity due to different agro climatic regions within the country • Strong governmental support • Monoculture (cv. 0900 Ziraat, 70-80%), local cultivars (around 100 cultivars)

Northeastern Turkey……….Origin of the cherries

Prunus avium is thought to have originated between the Caspian Sea and Western Anatolia and the English word of cherry and the Latin name of Cerasus possibly come from the name of the city Kerasun, currently known as Giresun in the Black Sea region of Turkey

Among several cherry species, the ground cherry (Prunus fruticosa) and sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) are also abundant in the Anatolian region. Since sour cherry was shown to have arisen from the cross between P. fruticosa and P. a v i u m , their overlapping habitats may indicate the centre of origin of sour cherries WORLD SWEET CHERRY PRODUCTION (2011)

Production amount (tons)

1-Turkey 440.000 2-USA 303.000 3-Iran 241.000 4-Italy 112.000 5-Spain 101.000

Main sweet cherry production areas in Turkey RICH WILD MATERIAL

Prunus avium (wild)

-Huge morphological and genetic diversity among wild materials -Fruit stalk traditionally using as medicinal purpose (infections, women diseases) -Seed as rootstock -Fresh fruit (distinct aroma)

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! ! SSR analysis of cherry rootstock selections

Genetic relationships between Turkish and foreign sweet cherries by using AFLP

23 Gene pool survey (Collection series selection)

-Genotypes growing wild in rainy conditions in black sea region were screened for resistance to fruit cracking in 2003 and labelled as the Coll. series.These selections are similar in fruit size to commercial cultivars and may create the genetic basis of a new cherry breeding program in Turkey

Since these accessions were selected from wild populations, it is not surprising that some previously identified wild cherry alleles,

S17, S18 and S31 were also present in this germplasm. However, other wild cherry alleles including S18, S19 and S21/25 were also identified in Turkish landrace cultivars (‘Tezce 0912’ and ‘Yakacık’), which indicates that Turkish sweet cherry cultivars represent an essentially broader gene pool as compared with currently grown international cultivars Variability of sweet cherry S locus in the Turkey

Cultivar S alleles CIG Cultivar S alleles CIG

Cemal S3S4 III 0900 Ziraat S3S12 XXII Elifli S3S4 III Aksehir Nap. S3S12 XXII Sultan Hisar S3S4 III Allahdiyen S3S12 XXII Acı Kara S2S3 IV Karakiraz S3S12 XXII Aydin Kirazi S2S3 IV Kazancioglu S3S12 XXII Edirne S2S3 IV Uluborlu S3S12 XXII Kara S2S3 IV Kaman Cayırı S2S6 XXV Sari S2S3 IV Kırdar S2S6 XXV Zeyit Ali S2S3 IV Niğde S4S7 XXIX Artvin 4 S3S6 VI Sultan S4S7 XXIX Artvin 5 S14S17 0 Bademli S2S10 XLII Artvin 43 S3S12 XXII Aydın Siyahı S2S10 XLII Abdullah S6S9 X Kara Turan S2S9 XLIII Kadı S6S9 X Acı Bursa S3S7 XLIV Tu r fa n d a S6S9 X Yakacık S2S18 XLV Y. N a p o l y o n S1S5 XIV Tezce S2S18 XLV Şekerpare S3S9 XVI Kara Gevrek S3S5 VII Halil Efendi S1S9 X Tabanlı S19S21/25 0

Selected materials from Black Sea region (cracking resistance and fruit size)

Genotypes S alleles CIG

Coll. 1 S3S4 III Coll. 12 S3S14 XXXIV Coll. 13 S3S4 III Coll. 14 S1S4 IX Coll. 16 S2S18 XLV Coll. 19 S2S4 XIII Coll. 20 S3S18 0 Coll. 34 S4S7 XXIX Coll. 36 S4S6 XVII Coll. 38 S4S34 0 Coll. 43 S2S13 0 Coll. 54 S3S4 III Coll. 56 S3S4 III Coll. 59 S2S31 0 Coll. 68 S2S4 XIII Coll. 70 S4S7 XXIX Coll. 71 S4S17 0

Wild sweet cherry stalk and P. mahaleb powder The use of genetic resources in sweet cherry breeding

• Improve of some characteristics of 0900 Ziraat cultivar (particularly to obtain self-compatible ones) (project started 2001 year) • Cross and mutation breeding • Stella x 0900 Ziraat (resiprocal). MAS technique - to determine S4 in early stage. X

0900 ZİRAAT

Stella x 0900 Ziraat S3 S4’ A-19 Stella x 0900 Ziraat S4’ S12 A-34 SOUR CHERRY

• Leader country in term of production amount • Rich wild and semi-wild materials throughout country • The most demanded fruit in juice and jam industry in Turkey • Monoculture (cv. Kutahya, 90%), local cultivars (a few) WORLD SOUR CHERRY PRODUCTION (2011)

Production

1-Turkey 183.000 2-Poland 175.000 3-Ukraina 173.000 4-USA 106.000

Russian Federation???? Iran?????

cv. Kutahya cv. Kutahya

Selection material among natural growing plants. very late harvest time, round, average 6.79 g, dark purplish, hard fruit flesh, high quality. Trees are very productive and no cracking was observed CLONAL SELECTION ON cv. Kutahya SOUR CHERRY ‘Kütahya’ sour cherry is a well known local variety, with very high fruit quality and attractiveness.

‘Kütahya’ has been grown for centuries in nearly all parts of Turkey

Many clones of ‘Kütahya’ were evaluated, with 22 selected for the National Selection Program and adaptation trials

Phonological and pomological characteristics of ‘Kütahya’ sour cherry clones were studied to identify the best from among the 22 candidates that were selected in the second step of the National Selection program CLONAL SELECTION ON cv. Kutahya SOUR CHERRY

Selection criteria were yield, flesh/pit ratio, juice ratio, juice color, taste, soluble solids/acid ratio, fruit size and attractiveness. The top-ranked clones were selection numbers 1353, 1408 and 1350, which are suggested as promising types of ‘Kütahya’ sour cherry Prunus mahaleb

• Rich wild materials throughout country • Aromatic spice • Rootstock value Prunus mahaleb

Mahlab is an aromatic spice made from the seeds of a species of cherry, Prunus mahaleb (the St Lucie cherry)

The cherry stones are cracked to extract the seed kernel, which is about 5 mm diameter, soft and chewy on extraction. The seed kernel is ground to a powder before use. Its flavour is similar to a combination of bitter almond and cherry

It is used in small quantities to sharpen sweet foods Prunus mahaleb

It has been used for centuries in the Middle East and the surrounding areas as a flavoring for baked goods

In Greek American cooking, it is the characteristic flavoring of Christmas cake and pastry recipes

Thanks to renewed interest in Mediterranean cooking it has been recently mentioned in several cookbooks Prunus mahaleb (seeds) Prunus mahaleb seeds (manual grinder)

Prunus laurocerasus

• Semi wild • Medicinal plant (against diabet) • Only grown in Black Sea region • Selection studies are completed • Natural resistance to insects and diseases. No chemical are sprayed • Suitable for organic production • A wide range of harvest time (3 months)

KP-1 KL-1 BS-5 BS-2 KP-5 RH-2 RH-4 RH-7 RH-8 RH-9 RH-5 KL-3 KS-4 CH-2 KP-7 KP-9 KL-2 KS-3 KL-4 KL-7 KL-6 KP-10 KP-2 KP-3 KP-8 RH-1 RH-3 RH-6 KS-2 BS-1 CH-3 KP-11 CH-1 KS-1 BS-4 Nobilis-1 KP-4 KP-6 BS-6 Avium Ziraat BS-3 KP-5 Avium Star 0.04 0.26 0.47 0.68 089 Coefficient Figure 2. Dendrogram of 40 Prunus laurocerasus, two Prunus avium genotypes and one Laurus nobilis germplasm as outgroup. based on UPGMA cluster analysis using 8 SSR markers. polymorphic loci is 63 and the percentage of polymorphic loci is TableSSR 4. Genetic analysis variation of the 40 ofcherry Prunuslaurel laurocerasus100. RAPD analysis 18genotypes has been performed previously to identify and the other three genotypes. genetic diversity between Prunus laurocerasus L. populations, Sample Mean Mean Mean Mean and they found that about 7% of the amplified bands were Size Na* Ne* H* I* polymorphic. Although RAPD marker system has certain 43 2.0000 1.5318 0.3092 0.4662 advantages, reproducibility of the bands is low. SSR has the St. Dev St. Dev St. Dev St. Dev 43 0.0000 0.3507 0.1706 0.2171 advantage over RAPD for its high reproducibility and great power Abbreviation: *Na = Observed number of alleles; Ne = Effective number of for the detection of polymorphism 42. 46 38 47 alleles ; H = Nei’s gene diversity ; I = Shannon’s Information index . In the current study, phylogenetic dendogram was constructed study have been found as an effective tool for evaluating the between the 40 mostly edible cherry laurel (P. l a u ro c e r a s u s ) phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity. genotypes and they were clustered in two main groups (Fig. 3). In This study is the first publication using SSR primers among 40 this study, a high percentage of polymorphism was obtained. The 18 P. l a u ro c e r a s u s L. genotypes. One of our aims is to develop SSR polymorphism rate was higher than that of RAPD analysis study . markers that can be further applied to practical characterization of Genetic diversity between the samples was measured analyzing P. l a u ro c e r a s u s genotypes and help to discover the best analytical the H and I values. The analysis showed that the cherry laurel methods for understanding genetic relationships. Moreover, the genotypes were genetically close to each other. results help to identify the putative genotypes more suitable for All genotypes were divided into two major groups in UPGMA carrying out breeding studies in cherry laurel grown in Turkey. analysis. According to the results of UPGMA analysis, the P. Due to absence of cherry laurel specific SSR markers, 12 SSR avium cv. 0900Ziraat genotype was close to BS3, KP5, BS6, KP6, primer pairs were selected from sour cherry, sweet cherry, and and KP4 genotypes. Furthermore, PCA analysis revealed a similar peach (Table 2). Out of 12, eight markers were amplified in cherry grouping of the 40 genotypes and the two Prunus avium L and laurel, which indicates a high level of cross-species amplification one Laurus nobilis supporting the results of UPGMA analysis. of SSR markers among cherry species. Our data showed that cross- Additionally, the cophenetic correlation coefficient with r-value = species cherry SSR markers could be used for cherry laurel. Similar 0.75 indicated good fit between the distance matrix and the data results were found in other studies 41. matrix. Out of other, eight primers, UDP primers belonging to genus Resultantly, the two analyses (UPGMA, PCoA ) for 40 genotypes Prunus showed maximum number of polymorphic bands in the revealed that the genotypes had close relationship. The samples study. This shows that out of all primer groups UDP type primers were collected from six locations and it was expected that there are most transferable among cherry laurel genotypes; using these would be variability among the genotypes; however SSR analysis primers are the most successful to define polymorphic bands. did not confirm the hypothesis since the genetic diversity was The SSR markers identified in this report showed a high level of low between the samples. This could be the result of close polymorphism among 40 P. l a u ro c e r a s u s genotypes indicating proximity of the samples. The two analyses (UPGMA, PCoA ) that SSR marker are beneficial for determining the genetic showed that the genotypes were divided into two groups. The relationships between P. l a u ro c e r a s u s genotypes. The number of first group contained majority of the P. l a u ro c e r a s u s genotypes,

Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.11 (2), April 2013 633 Prunus laurocerasus

Cherry laurel (P. laurocerasus), locally known as ‘Taflan’ or ‘Karayemis’ is a popular fruit among local people and abundantly distributed in the Black Sea Region in Turkey, both occurring in near forest populations and hedgerows around gardens

The species is still among the less known fruits and is very adaptable to marginal environments where the most fragile groups live and they represent a source of food of particular significance for local peoples

The high morphological diversity among cherry laurel trees are visible in the region Prunus laurocerasus

The fruits of cherry laurel are consumed fresh or dried or processed into jam, marmalade, canned or pickled and its importance is not limited to its nutritive value but also their high contents of potentially health-promoting components

Cherry laurel fruits and seeds have been used as traditional medicines for a long time in Turkey, as well. Prunus laurocerasus

It is also connected to the heritage of cultural values in the region and makes a cultural bridge between local peoples and their relatives who migrated to the western parts of the country

When the local peoples harvest the cherry laurel fruits they can prepare it as fresh or processes into several special products and send them to relatives living away from region as special gift

Prunus angustifolia

• Wild • Local food • Dwarf growing habit…Rootstock potential