Genome-wide characterization of simple sequence repeats in Pyrus bretschneideri and their application in an analysis of genetic diversity in pear

Background: Pear (Pyrus spp.) is an economically important temperate fruit tree worldwide. In the past decade, significant progress has been made in pear molecular genetics based on DNA research, but the number of molecular markers is still quite limited, which hardly satisfies the increasing needs of geneticists and breeders. Results: In this study, a total of 156,396 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci were identified from a genome sequence of Pyrus bretschneideri 'Dangshansuli'. A total of 101,694 pairs of SSR primers were designed from the SSR loci, and 80,415 of the SSR loci were successfully located on 17 linkage groups (LGs). A total of 534 primer pairs were synthesized and preliminarily screened in four pear cultivars, and of these, 332 primer pairs were selected as clear, stable, and polymorphic SSR markers. Eighteen polymorphic SSR markers were randomly selected from the 332 polymorphic SSR markers in order to perform a further analysis of the genetic diversity among 44 pear cultivars. The 14 European pears and their hybrid materials were clustered into one group (European pear group); 29 Asian pear cultivars were clustered into one group (Asian pear group); and the Zangli pear cultivar 'Deqinli' from Yunnan Province, China, was grouped in an independent group, which suggested that the cultivar 'Deqinli' is a distinct and valuable germplasm resource. The population structure analysis partitioned the 44 cultivars into two populations, Pop 1 and Pop 2. Pop 2 was further divided into two subpopulations. Results from the population structure analysis were generally consistent with the results from the UPGMA cluster analysis. Conclusions: The results of the present study showed that the use of next-generating sequencing to develop SSR markers is fast and effective, and the developed SSR markers can be utilized by researchers and breeders for future pear improvement.