Genetic Kinship And Discrimination Between The Cultivars Consisting A Sister Cultivar Group In Spring Orchid Cymbidium Goeringii

Cultivars collected from similar regions and exhibiting similar phenotypes to each other are commonly called sister cultivars in spring orchid (Cymbidium goeringii). However, no exact information is available for the original collection places and collectors of sister cultivars, and no study has revealed the degree of genetic relationship among them. This study was performed to determine genetic kinship among sister cultivars. Thirteen flower-variant types of cultivars consisting of four sister cultivar groups (358 samples) were collected, and then thirteen combined genotypes were identified by the determination of 12 SSR genotypes using the multiplex PCR. The phylogenetic analysis and the sibling probabilities of the combined genotypes suggested that the cultivars constituting each group were close relatives. Some combined genotypes were regarded to be a cultivar-specific, but others were observed simultaneously in two or more cultivars within a group. Therefore, it was suggested to establish a new classification criteria on the sister cultivars. This study particularly proposes to prepare a detailed evaluation criteria for cultivar pairs of 'Hongnoeul' and 'Ruby', and 'Noeul' and 'Sehongso' in group-1 through exact co-analysis of the phenotypes and genotypes. As the first study on the genetic kinship between sister cultivars, this study will help to understand the genetic nature of the sister cultivars, and to re-classify them.