Accurate identification of named accessions in germplasm collections is extremely important, especially for vegetatively propagated crops which are expensive to maintain. Thus, an inexpensive, reliable, and rapid genotyping method is essential because it avoids the need for laborious and time-consuming morphological comparisons. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) marker panels containing large numbers of SNPs have been developed for many crop species, but such panels are much too large for basic cultivar identification. Here, we have identified a minimum set of SNP markers sufficient to distinguish apple cultivars held in the English and Welsh national collections providing a cheaper and automatable alternative to the markers currently used by the community. We show that SNP genotyping with a small set of well selected markers is equally efficient as microsatellites for the identification of apple cultivars and has the added advantage of automation and reduced cost when screening large numbers of samples.

准确鉴定种质资源中的命名种质非常重要，特别是对于营养繁衍的作物，这种作物的维护成本很高。因此，廉价，可靠和快速的基因分型方法是必不可少的，因为它避免了费力且费时的形态比较。已经为许多农作物开发了包含大量SNP的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）标记面板，但是这种面板太大，无法用于基本品种鉴定。在这里，我们确定了一套最低限度的SNP标记，足以区分英语和威尔士国家收藏中的苹果品种，为社区目前使用的标记提供了一种更便宜且可自动化的替代方法。