El origen de la variedad de almendro Guara

ABSTRACT The origin of the almond cultivar ‘Guara’. ‘Guara’ has been the most planted almond cultivar in Spain in recent years. The introducers of this cultivar reported its origin as unknown and suggested that it is related to the Italian almond cultivar ‘Tuono’. Indeed, the experience of farmers and researchers has revealed strong similarities between ‘Guara’ and ‘Tuono’. In order to compare the identity of the two cultivars, their genetic profiles (fingerprints) were determined with a set of 12 molecular markers (type microsatellites, SSR) used to analyze the INRA clones of ‘Guara’, ‘Tuono’, ‘Supernova’ and ‘Mazzetto’, the two last considered synonymous with ‘Tuono’. Furthermore, a set of 23 SSRs was also analyzed in ‘Guara’ and ‘Tuono’ samples from different reference collections of CEBAS– CSIC (Murcia, Spain), INRA (Avignon, France), IRTA (Constantí, Spain), and the University of Bari (Bari, Italy). The results confirmed that ‘Guara’ and ‘Tuono’ present identical DNA fingerprints for the 35 SSRs analyzed. This information together with its unknown origin and the similar agronomic characteristics of the two cultivars, demonstrates that ‘Guara’ is actually the traditional Italian cultivar ‘Tuono’.