Abstract
Among the fundamental questions regarding vegetatively propagated fruit crop species are critical those seeking a comprehensive understanding the genomic basis of divergence among the cultivated local varieties, the genetic variation within crop germplasm, and the best measure of the degree of similarity among plants of the same local variety cultivated in different orchards. Recent advances in whole-genome DNA sequencing have revolutionized the researcher ability to discover genomic variation, thus enabling highly powered genotyping studies. DNA samples from 120 accessions within four known hazelnut (Corylus avellana) landraces ('Tonda Gentile Romana', 'Nocchione', 'Tonda Gentile Romana Rosa', and 'Nociara') and 1 unknown accession, were clearly differentiated using genotypes for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) alleles discovered at 4,200 loci using the 'Restriction Associated DNA' tagging ('RADtag') methodology. The over 13% of the SNP loci with alleles specific to one accession (private alleles) revealed clonal variation within a landrace and lay the basis for certification of hazelnut germplasm. The validated SNPs will be used to develop SNP arrays for genotyping F-1 individuals in order to provide e genetic map of the SNPs and perform a ` genome wide association' study to locate the EVG locus where reside the alleles controlling duration of winter-dormancy.