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- Author or Editor: Richard L. Bell x
Of 133 Pyrus accessions (predominantly P. communis L.), collected in Central Europe and previously rated in the resistant U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) blight scores 10–6, only 77 (57.0%) remained in these scores after an additional 5 years of exposure to fire blight [Erwinia amylovora (Burr.) Winsl. et al.]. Of these, 24 originated from three states in former Yugoslavia. Following several years of severe blight epiphytotics, only 5 (10.4%) of 52 accessions released from quarantine since 1986 and planted at Appalachian Fruit Research Station scored 6 or above. All accessions were highly susceptible to artificial blossom inoculation, and only 10 accessions were at least moderately resistant to artificial shoot inoculations.
Abstract
A computer program was written to allow fast tracing of pedigrees from a computer file of parentage records and which lists the pedigree of any requested individual or progeny in 2 forms. The first output format is a listing adapted to integration with another program which calculates inbreeding coefficients and coefficients of coancestry; the second output format is a family tree.
`Blake's Pride' has been released jointly by USDA and The Ohio State Univ. as a new fire blight-resistant cultivar. The original seedling tree was selected in 1977 at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster by R.C. Blake and T. van der Zwet from a cross of US 446 × US 505, performed in 1965 by H.J. Brooks, and was tested under the original seedling number, OHUS 66131-021. The fruit of `Blake's Pride' is pyriform to round-pyriform in shape, and is moderate in size, averaging ≈2.75″ to 3″ in diameter, and 3.25″ in height. The stem is short, medium in thickness, and upright. Skin undercolor is yellow, the finish is glossy, and 20% to 30% of the fruit surface is covered with a smooth, light tan russet. Harvest maturity occurs about 3 weeks after `Bartlett', and the fruit will store in air storage for at least 3 months without core breakdown or superficial scald. The flesh texture is moderately fine, juicy, and buttery. Grit cells are moderately small and occur primarily around the core and in a thin layer under the skin, similar to `Bartlett'. The flavor is subacid and aromatic. The tree is moderate in vigor on `Bartlett' seedling rootstock, and upright-spreading in habit. Yield has been moderate to moderately high. Fire blight infections are rare, and extend no further than 1-year-old growth. Artificial blossom inoculations indicate a moderate degree of resistance of blossoms to fire blight infection. Resistance of `Blake's Pride' to both shoot and blossom infection is much greater than that of `Bartlett'.
`Beurre Bosc' pear (Pyrus communis L.) was transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens (E.F. Smith & Townsend) Conn strain EHA101 containing the binary vector pGA-GUSGF into which the rolC gene had been inserted. Leaf explants from in vitro shoot tip cultures were wounded, Agrobacterium-inoculated, and cultured on kanamycin selection medium. Regenerating shoots were transferred to proliferation medium without antibiotics. Three clones tested positive for GUS and nptII enzyme activity. Transformation with the rolC gene was confirmed by DNA, RNA, and protein blot analyses. The number of copies of the rolC transgene varied from one to three. Plantlets of the three transgenic clones were acclimated and transferred to the greenhouse. Preliminary observations of phenotype indicate that the rolC gene reduced height, number of nodes, and leaf area of transgenic `Beurre Bosc'.
`Shenandoah' is a new European pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivar which combines resistance to fire blight with fruit of excellent quality. The original seedling tree was selected in 1985 from a cross of `Max Red Bartlett'× US 56112-146, and was tested under the original seedling number, US 78304-057. The fruit of `Shenandoah' is pyriform in shape, and moderately large in size, averaging 72 mm in diameter and 92 mm in height. Skin color at harvest is light green, turning yellow-green when ripe. The skin finish is glossy, and 10% to 20% of the fruit surface is blushed red. There is light tan russet at the calyx. Lenticles are slightly conspicuous, and are surrounded by small, light brown russet. The stem is medium to long (≈25 mm), of medium thickness, and slightly curved. Harvest maturity occurs about four weeks after `Bartlett', and the fruit will store in refrigerated (-1 °C) air storage for at least four months without core breakdown or superficial scald. The flesh texture is moderately fine, juicy, and buttery. Grit cells are moderately small and occur primarily around the core and in a thin layer under the skin. The flavor is aromatic, similar to `Bartlett', and is moderately acidic during the first two months of storage, becoming subacid after longer storage. The tree is moderate in vigor on `Bartlett' seedling and `OHxF 97' rootstocks, and upright-spreading in habit. Shenandoah' blooms in mid-season, similar to `Bartlett'. Yield has been moderately high and precocious, and with no pronounced biennial pattern. Fire blight resistance is similar to `Seckel', with infections extending no further than 1-year-old branches. Artificial blossom inoculations indicate a moderate degree of blossom resistance to fire blight infection.
Abstract
Phenotypic correlations were estimated between 7 fruit quality characters and resistance to fire blight, caused by Erwinia amylovora (Burrill) Winslow et al., in crosses involving various species of pear (Pyrus spp.). Correlations were generally negative, small, and usually not significantly different from zero. Some significant negative correlations were found between fruit russett and appearance with fire blight resistance within crosses involving P. communis L. and hybrids of P. communis × P. pyrifolia (Burm.) Nakai, but none exceeded −0.30. Low correlations between fruit quality and fire blight resistance in progeny of diverse crosses indicate no genetic impediments to selection for combined high quality and blight resistance in pear.
Abstract
Heritability estimates for fire blight resistance in pear were obtained by regressing progeny means on midparental phenotypes. Approximately half of the variability in resistance in pear was additive (h2 = 0.52), but there was also evidence for nonadditive genetic effects compatible with a proposed qualitative gene for sensitivity. A method was established to estimate relative average combining ability for fire blight resistance. Progeny means of individual parents were adjusted to the grand progeny mean of 8 intercrossed testers based on common progeny.
The organogenesis potential is different among cultivars and must be optimized for individual genotype. Shoot organogenesis capacity from in vitro leaves and root organogenesis capacity of in vitro shoots in six clonal apple rootstock cultivars were compared. The shoot organogenesis capacity was highly genotype dependent. ‘GM256’ was found to be the most responsive genotype for shoot regeneration from leaf explants among the cultivars, showing high regeneration percentage on all tested media. The effects of basal medium composition and cytokinins on shoot regeneration were different depending on rootstock genotype. Optimum regeneration occurred on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium for ‘71-3-150’, and optimum regeneration occurred on Quoirin and Lepoivre (QL) basal medium for ‘60-160’ and ‘ПБ’. Thidiazuron (TDZ) was more effective than 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) for Malus prunifolia (Y), whereas TDZ and BA were not significantly different for the other cultivars. All rootstock cultivars showed high root organogenic capacity. The percentage of rooting reached more than 90% and the mean root number per plantlet ranged from three to five. The optimum rooting medium was different for different rootstock cultivars. Optimum root organogenesis occurred on half-strength QL medium for ‘GM256’ and ‘Y’, and for ‘ПБ’ and ‘JM7’ on one-quarter-strength MS medium.