STUDY OF GENOTYPE-PHENOTYPE CORRELATIONS IN CAMELLIA SINENSIS (L.) KUNTZE AND CITRUS (L.) COLLECTIONS FROM THE WESTERN CAUCASUS BASED ON MORPHOLOGICAL ECONOMICALLY VALUABLE TRAITS AND MULTILOCUS DNA-MARKERS

Citrus and tea are among the important crops in terms of global production. The collections of the Federal Research Centre the Subtropical Scientific Centre of RAS are cultivated in a climatic region, which is borderline for these crops; they have a higher genetic variability potential and represent valuable breeding material. To date, modern molecular research methods can significantly accelerate breeding processes through marker-based selection, the necessary stage of which is the establishment of genotype-phenotype relationships. In this study, PCAanalysis was performed to establish such connections based on multilocus DNA SCoT markers (12 for the citrus collection and 6 for the tea collection) and morphological traits valuable for breeding local citrus and tea collections. As a result of the study, the main components F1 and F2 on the biplot graph showed a combined variability of 34.91 % for citrus fruits and 27.95 % for tea. Correlations were established between SCoT markers (SCoT6_1500, SCoT12_850, SCoT14_800), lemon and lime cultivars and a sign of tree height; markers (SCoT9_1200, SCoT12_500, SCoT12_1200, SCoT12_2000, SCoT21_600, SCoT21_900), genotypes of mandarins and oranges and morphological traits (pulp colour, pulp taste, pulp consistency). In addition, marker-trait relationships have been established for SCoT21_1150, SCoT21_2100, SCoT31_1300, SCoT6_2500, SCoT36_1300 and peel consistency, the number of embryos in the seed, and the number of seeds. Correlations have been established between SCoT markers (SCoT06_A8, SCoT07_A1, SCoT07_A5, SCoT12_A1, SCoT33_A5, SCoT33_ A9, SCoT33_A10) and morphological traits of tea (leaf surface, leaf shape, leaf length and width ratio) in tea collections. The results obtained will be important for the subsequent accelerated trait-oriented selection of these collections.