| Affiliation: | (1) Kearney Agricultural Center, Department of Pomology, University of California, Davis, 9240 S Riverbend Ave, Parlier, CA 93648, USA;(2) Department of Pomology, University of California, Davis, 1047 Wickson Hall Davis, CA 95616, USA |
| Abstract: | Peach fruit are handled, processed, and marketed according to their stone adhesion and fruit softening type. Uncertainty exists over whether these simply inherited traits are controlled by two linked loci, Freestone (F) and Melting flesh (M) or one multi-allelic locus, and whether M is controlled by the cell wall degrading enzyme, endopolygalacturonase. From morphological and molecular analysis of two related segregating populations of peach, we conclude that a single locus containing at least one gene for endopolygalacturonase, controls both F and M with at least three effective alleles. A simple diagnostic PCR test is now available for the three major phenotypes of freestone melting flesh (FMF), clingstone melting flesh (CMF), and clingstone non-melting flesh (CNMF). |
