The origin of the self-compatible almond ‘Supernova’

The almond cultivar 'Supernova' is reported in the literature as a late-flowering self-compatible mutant, obtained by the irradiation of the early-flowering self-incompatible cultivar 'Fascionello'. Our work to investigate the molecular basis of this form of self-compatibility has called into question the origin of 'Supernova'. Test selfing was performed both on 'Supernova' and on the accession of 'Fascionello' from which it was derived - 'Fascionello-Rome'. Both proved self-compatible. Amplification of S-RNase alleles, using consensus primers from the signal peptide region to the second conserved region of the S-RNase gene and primers specific for allele S f , confirmed 'Supernova' and 'Fa…