Genetic diversity within Swedish national heritage cultivars of gooseberry, Ribes uva-crispa

Abstract: In the year 2000, the National program for diversity of cultivated plants (Pom) was established, aiming to recover old, Swedish fruit and berry cultivars that historically have been important for breeding and commercial production. A collection of mandate cultivars of Ribes uva-crispa (gooseberry) containing valuable accessions was created. Currently, 16 accessions from the mandate list are missing in the collection and missing mandate cultivars could be found through a national inventory of plant resources. In this study, mandate cultivars and inventory findings collected by Pom, were analyzed though molecular characterization (SSR-markers), to find duplicates, mislabelings and to analyze the genetic variability of the collection. The present work uncovered several cases of duplication among the inventory findings and one, possible case of mislabeling. All the mandate cultivars had unique SSR-profiles, which was expected. Furthermore, of the 15 SSR markers used, 6 markers are particularly effective at describing the variability of the gooseberry germplasm. The PCoA analysis revealed the presence of a relatively more homogenous group among the analyzed plant material. These accessions display more genetic similarities, compared to the rest of the analyzed plants. The data constitutes an important basis for evaluation and addition of accessions to the present collection of mandate cultivars and for removal of duplicates among the inventory findings.