Molecular characterization of Kastamonu garlic: An economically important garlic clone in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey is one of the major garlic producing country in the World and the significant amount of Turkey's production has been made using a garlic variety called Kastamonu garlic. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess genetic relationship of Kastamonu garlic with 20 previously characterized garlic clones collected from different regions of the world using AFLP and locus specific DNA markers. One putative Kastamonu garlic genotype was obtained from Taskopru district of Kastamonu province while another putative Kastamonu garlic genotype was collected from a local farmers' market in Bursa province and called as Kast-Taskopru and Kast-Bursa in this study, respectively. In the UPGMA dendrogram developed by using 120 AFLP markers, Kast-Taskopru was clustered closely over 97% similarity with other non-bolting garlic clones, P1493112, P1493118 and P1383824. This cluster was also supported by bootstrap analysis with 100% bootstrap value. All clones in this cluster also shared same alleles of gene specific DNA markers. However, Kast-Bursa shared 100% polymorphic AFLP markers and gene specific markers with a different garlic clone, P1497951 in another distinct cluster of UPGMA dendrogram and this clustering has also bootstrap value of 100%. These results suggest that Kastamonu garlic is not unique and garlic production in Turkey has been made using several garlic clones, even though most of this production has been sold as Kastamonu garlic due to its high popularity. Therefore, a standard Kastamonu garlic genotype needs to be determined by fingerprinting all available garlic clones cultivated in Kastamonu province and other regions of Turkey.