A modified-bulk segregant analysis for late blooming in sour cherry

A modified-bulk segregant analysis in combination with amplified fragmentlength polymorphism (AFLP) technique was used to identify markers associatedwith bloom time in a sour cherry population derived from crosses between twosour cherry (Prunus cerasus L., 2n=4x=32) cultivars, `Balaton' and `Surefire'.Screening of early and late extreme groups with 94 AFLP primer pairsresulted in the identification of two candidate bands in two different primercombinations (a 78 bp fragment in ETT/MCCG primer pair combination and a 92bp fragment in EAA/MCGT primer pair combination). These candidate bandswere present in the late bloom time group but not in the early group. Geneticmarkers linked to bloom time in sour cherry is very important, becauseutilization of markers will help the indirect selection of varieties for desirablebloom time in early generations, saving time and effort.