Introduction:
Apples are an important economic and cultural resource in the United States. The domesticated apple (Malus×domestica Borkh.) was brought to North America in the 17th century and continues to reside in temperate regions such as the Western Slopes of the United States (Dolan, 2009).
Apple trees, of the genus Malus, exhibit genetic diversity throughout the world. Their heterozygosity is documented in genomic sequences of parents and respective progenies; distinct differences are often caused by introgression and admixture. An apple seed rarely resembles the parent, and this genetic variation poses complications during classification and identification. After the theory around the modern domesticated apple trees’ wild ancestors, questions arise with de Novo sequencing and constant cultivation. Cultivation, through breeding and grafting, has aided in the process of artificially selected apple trees and thus guiding evolution, (Harris et al. 2002; Nikiforova et al. 2013). Apple grafting, developed in ancient Rome and China, circumvented the problem of extreme heterozygosity. Despite this advancement, trees in early America were typically sown as seeds, resulting in cultivar diversification. The fruit, originally brought to the New World by missionaries and settlers, was widely popular in cider. Moving West, the average frontiersman drank 10.5 oz of cider a day.