چكيده فارسي :
The Persian Plateau is located in Western and Central Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest, the Hormuz Strait and Persian Gulf to the south and the Indus River to the east in Pakistan. Khuzestan is the region the spans from the Mesopotamian plain to the rest of Iranian Plateau. Today, Iran compasses a major portion of the Persian Plateau and where it used to include the Persian Empire in 625 BC. Thanks to its vast area, Iran has different climate, ranging from moderate region of the Caspian Sea in the north, to the intermountain, temperate and cold ranges of Alborz, Zagros, and numerous other mountains in the north, west, and central regions, to the warm and tropical zones of the Persian Gulf in the south. The Persian Plateau, in general, and today’s Iran specifically, are native regions to many horticultural and agronomical species of flowers, vegetables and fruits, and other plants. Archeological discoveries clearly reveal that cultivation of numerous horticultural crops, including grapes, pomegranates, apples, pears, quinces, medlars, saffron, tulips, narcissus, hyacinth, and many other plants have long been practiced in Iran. Thus, many remaining cultivars or species of these plants are enormously
valuable genetic resources today and can be used for improvement and disease or drought resistance through modern genomics and genetic technologies. Among these plants, both apples and pears are native to Iran and the regions adjacent to the Caspian Sea Mountains. However, due to the existing political issues, the access of independent foreign scientists to Iran has been limited in the past 38 years. Thus, in the mid-1990’s, a number of publications have refereed Kazakhstan and regions around that country as the native areas of apples. In a four-year study during 1971 and 1975, the senior author travelled to various regions of Iran and conducted an exploratory study on climatic conditions of each growing region and description of characteristics of hundreds of native apples and pear varieties and germplasm. That study was later followed by be Iranian scientists, using more modern genetic tools for pome fruit identifications. In this process, a team consisting of the second author used the SSR allelic data to determine the population structure using SRUCTURE 2.2 software and genetic relationships based on a phenogram, using POPGENE 1.32 software. This investigation revealed a strong agreement between the population structure data and the phenogram, and demonstrated that Iranian cultivars and landraces have a closer genetic affinity with Malus sieversiifrom Central Asia (east of Iran) and M. orientalis native to Turkey and Russia, than with other Malus species. Furthermore, old apple scion and rootstock cultivars were closely related to one another and grouped between M. sieversii/M. orientalis and the rest of the wild Malus species. The initial exploration, meshed the most recent studies showed a closer genetic and geographic affinity of the Iranian germplasm with M. sieversii and M. orientalis, together with their location on the Silk Trade Route, suggests that Iran is likely one of the original habitat in apple and pear domestication and these fruits were transferred from Central Asia to the West via the Silk Road. Thus, a more independent and detailed exploratory study in the mountainous regions of north, east and central regions and in the forests along the Caspian Sea in Iran would reveal a much clearer picture of the of genetic diversity for apples and pears and such a study is certainly warranted. Iranian native apples and pears drastically vary in color, time of maturity, storage life, vigor, taste and other physical and chemical characteristics. Only as example, ‘Kharv-e Nieshabour’ apple was a late, deep red, and large-size apple that could easily be stored over several months under regular storage conditions. ‘Golab-e Isfahan’ and ‘ShafieAbadi’ apples were among varieties that mature in early to mid- summer in the central growing regions of Iran. ‘Dom Kaj-e Karaj’ was among the earliest and ‘Paighambari’ pears among the latest-maturing varieties. Although new genetic procedures and tolls will identify many similarities in the genotype of cultivars with different names, still a huge diversity exists among different genotypes. Similar to many other countries, valuable germplasm materials in Iran are becoming extinct due to the continues destruction, insufficient and poorly-studied road and building projects, lack of the public knowledge, and appetite for destruction of old varieties and replace them by the new ones. These invaluable germplasm are not only an Iranian national treasure, but also belongs to the future of the world agriculture. Therefore, they should be protected, preserved, and funded through internationally concerted channels. The effort can be similar to those practiced in the national germplasm centers in Corvallis, Oregon, Davis, California, and Cornell, Geneva in New York in the United States.
