Relationship between molecular markers with fruit quantitative and qualitative traits of tolerant lime genotypes to witch’s broom disease

In order to investigate the relationship between markers related to important quantitative and qualitative traits including percentage of total extract, fruit juice, Total soluble solids (TSS), fruit juice acidity (TA), pH, EC, vitamin C, fruit density, fruit volume and number of seeds in 33 lime acidic genotypes, 13 pairs of microsatellite markers (SSR) and 9 ISSR markers were used. In this order, stepwise regression analysis was performed between molecular data as independent variables and related traits as dependent variables. A total of 28 alleles from 11 pairs of microsatellite markers were significantly associated with changes in 19 traits. Acidity with seven positive alleles was highest and fruit length, TSS, number of seeds, L (skin radiance), C (Chroma) and b (blue to yellow) each with one allele had the lowest number of related alleles. The microsatellite markers TAA41 1 and TAA1 2 had the highest standardized regression coefficients with coefficients of 1.98 and 1.69, respectively. The results showed that out of 19 evaluated traits, 17 were related to at least one of the ISSR markers. A total of 39 bands from eight ISSR markers were significantly associated with changes in 17 traits. Identifying markers related to quantitative and qualitative traits, superior progeny can be used in the early stages of seedling growth, and there is no need for the plants to enter the maturity stage in breeding programs, especially hybridization.