Abstract
The cultivation of the PCNA (pollination-constant and non-astringent)-type persimmon is advantageous because of its natural loss of astringency on the tree. We previously found RFLP markers linked to the dominant alleles controlling the PCNA/non-PCNA trait and showed that the PCNA genotype could be distinguished from non-PCNA genotype by these markers in the breeding populations. In this study, RFLP markers were investigated with 33 persimmon cultivars. All PCNA cultivars except for Chinese 'Luo Tian Tian Shi', had identical banding pattern, whereas the non-PCNA cultivars exhibited many polymorphic bands. Thus, we could distinguish PCNA cultivars of Japanese origin from non-PCNA cultivars by the RFLP analysis, although 'Luo Tian Tian Shi' was mistakenly classified as a non-PCNA type. These results suggest that this marker system could be applied to distinguish PCNA cultivars of Japanese origin from non-PCNA ones.
