In a germplasm bank collection the conservation and characterization of genetic resources is a prerequisite in order to use the material in breeding projects aiming the creation of new cultivars. In the present study, 54 Prunus salicina domestica and Prunus domestica genotypes (including seven Greek cultivars), maintained in the ex situ National Genebank Collection of Greece, were classified using microsatellite (simple sequence repeat, SSR) markers on high resolution melting (HRM) analysis. The SSR primer pairs were chosen from the published literature as originally designed on Prunus species. This combined approach was used to genotype all plum accessions of the collection highlighting the benefits of either method (HRM and SSRs) for cultivar identification. Dendrograms for P. domestica and P. salicina and a combined one with all the genotypes assayed were produced. A total of 15 from the 19 P. domestica accessions analysed, including all the Greek accessions but ‘Avgati Skopelou’, were grouped into the same clade in the combined dendrogram, whereas the remaining four were dispersed into the P. salinica clades. Bayesian structure analysis confirmed that ‘Avgati Skopelou’ differs from the rest of the Greek plum cultivars since it was not grouped into the same cluster. The combination of HRM and SSRs, provided a considerably faster, cost-effective, closed-tube microsatellite genotyping method for molecular characterization of plum cultivars.

Introduction. Plum cv. SantaRosa shows climacteric behaviour and grows profitably under sub-temperateconditions in India. After ripening, it has a very limited shelflife (3–4 days) in ambient conditions [(38 ± 2) °C and at (68 ± 4)%RH]. Hence, there is an urgent need to extend its marketabilityusing recent techniques. Materials and methods. Plumswere harvested at the pre-climacteric and climacteric stages ofmaturity and packed with newspaper shreds (control), KMnO4-impregnatedchalks, KMnO4-impregnated newspaper shreds or ethylene-absorbent sachets;then they were transported by road to New Delhi. The biochemicaland physiological analyses were carried out at 3-day intervals onplums stored in supermarket conditions [(20 ± 1) °C and at (90 ± 2)%RH] for 15 days. Results and discussion. Untreatedfruits had less firmness than those which were packed with ethyleneabsorbents. The activities of fruit-softening enzymes such as lipoxygenase(LOX), polygalacturonase (PG) and pectin methylesterase (PME) increasedrapidly in the control treatment in comparison with plums packed withvarious ethylene absorbents, the least being either with ethylene-absorbentsachets or with KMnO4-impregnated newspaper shreds. Plums of pre-climacteric andclimacteric maturity attained respiration and ethylene evolutionpeaks on the 9th day and 6th day, respectively. Conclusions. Theplums of pre-climacteric and climacteric stages of maturity packed withethylene-absorbent sachets showed the best results in supermarketconditions in maintaining the firmness, quality and shelf life ofplum up to the 12th day and 9th day of storage, respectively.