Characterization of sequence-related amplified polymorphism markers analysis of tree peony bud sports

Bud sports have been widely exploited for creating novel cultivars in vegetatively propagated plants. However, bud sports of tree peony have rarely occurred nor been applied to breeding. We used sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers to characterize two tree peony groups with bud sports. ‘Er Qiao’ and ‘Luo Yang Hong’ formed group I and are derived from Chinese cultivars, while ‘Shima-nishiki’ and ‘Taiyō’ formed group II and are related to Japanese cultivars. The DNA samples were evaluated with 25 different primer pairs. This resulted in a total of 149 different amplicons in Group I, of which 80.5% were polymorphic. Group II generated a total of 57 amplicons, of which 63.2% were polymorphic. The two groups shared 43 amplicons. The genetic similarity among the cultivars ranged from 0.33 to 0.60. The two bud sports groups were apparently separated on the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages cluster analysis tree. The results demonstrated that this marker system appeared effective in detecting molecular differences between original parents and their bud sports in tree peony. This study provides a technical base for characterizing plants with bud sports, which are valuable genetic resources for further breeding.