Abstract

Chile is the largest exporter of Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) in the world. In order to respond to the needs of the productive sector, especially in regard to the supply of new varieties with better agronomic and quality characteristics, Chile kicked off a new breeding program for this species. In many fruit trees the development of molecular markers has allowed the construction of saturated genetic maps, to which genes controlling important traits are assigned. . Markers flanking these genes play an important role in selecting parental combinations and seedlings with positive traits, but also are important in detecting recessive traits, enable pre-selection for polygenic quantitative traitsand contribute to the understanding of biochemical and physiological processes involved in the pathway of important traits. Despite this, the availability of molecular markers for Prunus salicina is limited. In order to understand some of the molecular mechanisms involved in the Japanese plum fruits, we did two total RNA libraries by using Illumina technology and therefore, the first transcriptome of this specie was developed. We generate ~ 55,000 contigs with 2.728 repeated sequences with potential to be used as SSR molecular markers. Thirty seven potential markers associated with the metabolic pathways of sugar, acidity and color were identified and all of them were analyzed in 29 commercial varieties.