Shanhai Suimitsuto, one of the origins of Japanese peach cultivars

Almost all peaches grown in Japan supposedly originated from 'Hakuto' by crossbreeding, so that they are closely related to it. For example, 'Hakuho' and 'Akatsuki', offsprings of 'Hakuto', were obtained by controlled hybridization. There is a possibility that many cultivars are chance seedlings or bud sports of 'Hakuto'. However, the genetic origin of 'Hakuto' has not yet been identified. In this study, genetic relationships between 'Hakuto' and other peaches with different origins were analyzed, using 10 SSR markers. The results indicate that a close relationship exists between 'Shanhai Suimitsuto' and 'Hakuto' as well as a possible parent-offspring relationship. Contrarily, the peach 'Kinto' showed a close relationship to 'Hakuto' but not that of a parent-offspring because of a discrepancy of genotypes for the SSR loci. Parentage analysis of 'Hakuto' and 'Shanhai Suimitsuto' that was analyzed by 43 SSR loci, revealed that all SSR alleles were inherited by 'Hakuto' without any discrepancy from the putative parent 'Shanhai Suimitsuto'. These results indicate the very high possibility that 'Shanhai Suimitsuto' is a parent of 'Hakuto' and one of the original germplasm of the Japanese peaches.