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Fruit and ornamental breeders were surveyed about their use of molecular markers in either their breeding programs or in their related research programs. Responses were obtained from over 100 fruit and ornamental breeding programs from throughout the world. Of these, less than 50% used molecular markers in their programs. The two most common uses of these markers were for studies in plant identification and diversity. These were followed by the use of markers in developing molecular maps, in discovering molecular tags and/or trying to identify the genes for specific plant traits, for marker assisted selection, and finally, for the elucidation of plant taxonomy. In conclusion, although there is much research in this area, few programs are actually using markers in the context of an applied breeding program. The major reason for this situation is the lack of available markers and the cost of using these markers to screen large numbers of progeny. Those that use markers in their breeding tend to use them to verify the genotype of the parents or confirm the genotype of selected seedlings rather than screen unselected seedlings.
Abstract
The mean inbreeding and coancestry coefficients of Japanese-type plums grown in California and the southeastern United States were one-half or less of those calculated for peach. The three most important founding clones for the major California cultivars were ‘Santa Rosa’, ‘Eldorado’, and ‘Gaviota’; for the plums of the southeastern United States they were ‘Methley’, ‘Santa Rosa’, and ‘Mariposa’. The species background of both groups of plums was ≈50% P. salicina, although the sources of P. salicina differed between groups. For the California cultivars, the other half was composed of P. simonii and P. americana, whereas, for the southeastern group, the major contributing species was P. cerasifera, with lesser contributions from P. simonii, P. americana, P. angustifolia, and P. munsoniana.
Poor germination in Rosa has been an obstacle to breeding programs for years. Rose breeders generally stratify rose seed under cool, moist conditions for 4-10 weeks by planting directly into the seedling flat/bed or in a small container followed by planting the germinating seed into the seedling flat/bed. This experiment used 9 genotypes and compared these two approaches combined with variations in the stratification media (sand, perlite, sphagnum moss and Sunshine Mix #4). Over all stratification media and genotypes, germination was not influenced by whether the seed was stratified directly in the seedling flat/bed or in a small container. However, the process of transplantation of the delicate germinating seed from the small container to the flat/bed resulted in greater mortality of the germinating seedlings. he stratification media affected the germination of the rose seed. Sunshine Mix #4 gave the best germination as compared to all other media types tested. As expected the germination of the genotypes varied greatly, ranging from 0.7% to 37.1%.
Abstract
Genetic analysis of five presumptive isozyme loci in apricot (Prunus armeniaca L. and related species) revealed that the variation observed was controlled by two or three alleles in a simple Mendelian manner. This increases the number of known simply inherited traits in apricot from one to six. Linkage was not detected between MDH-1 and MDH-2.
Despite the hundreds of existing stone fruit (Prunus spp.) cultivars used for fresh market, there is a continuing need to develop new stone fruit cultivars as the requirements of the industry change. Over the last 20 years there has been a shift toward private breeding as the public sector decreases its support of these long-range programs. As a result there are fewer public breeding programs and many of those still operating protect their releases and partially fund their programs with royalty payments. Other trends that are shaping the development of new stone fruit cultivars are a need for smaller or more easily managed tree architecture, a trend toward the use of fewer agricultural chemicals, the expansion of production zones into the milder winter zones to allow year-round availability of stone fruit, a general diversification of fruit types being marketed, the increased awareness of the health benefits of fruit consumption, the need for better and more consistent quality, and given the global marketing of these fruit the increased need for enhanced postharvest qualities. The breeding programs of the world are responding to these trends and working toward developing the cultivars for the world markets of the future.
Abstract
I would like to clarify the difference between two words that are frequently misused in our publications. I suppose the words “pollenizer” and “pollinator” have been confused since their invention, given their consistent misuse in at least one major pomology text (Tree Fruit Production by Tesky and Shoemaker). A pollinator is the agent of pollen transfer, which, in many species, are bees or some other insects; a pollenizer is the source of pollen, which is usually a flowerproducing plant. One recent paper talks of “planting of pollinators”, which brings up visions of planting bees in the orchard, and of “pollinator frequencies”, which indicates the author is referring to bee hive density, when the author was really referring to the density of trees as pollen sources. Another author was describing parentage of some tree fruits and said that cultivar A “was the progeny of unrelated unknown pollinators of” cultivar B. How fruit trees can be the progeny of fruit insects is beyond me! Of course, the authors meant to use the word “pollenizer”, not “pollinator”. Similar mistakes have been made throughout the literature equally by professionals in a range of disciplines.
Seedlings from three interspecific backcross rose populations derived from a F1 population were used to study inheritance of several traits in roses. Three F1 plants (WOB13, WOB21, and WOB26) from the hybridization of the diploid parents Rosa wichuraiana and `Old Blush' were backcrossed to `Old Blush' to produced three populations to observe the segregation of several morphological and disease resistance traits. The segregating rose traits in the backcrosses are no prickles on stems, non-recurrent blooming habit, white single flowers, black spot resistance, and powdery mildew resistance present in the Rosa wichuraiana parent compared to prickles on stems, recurrent blooming habit, pink double flowers, black spot susceptible, and powdery mildew susceptible present in the `Old Blush' parent. Visual data was collected for the segregating traits using color standards and rating scales as appropriate. The three populations expressed the segregating traits to varying degrees. Under the environmental conditions at College Station, Texas the population `Old Blush' × WOB26 had a greater expression of the traits for no prickles on stems, recurrent blooming habit, disease resistance to black spot, and disease resistance to powdery mildew, which are traits desired in breeding programs. The segregation of flower color (white/pink), and flower type (single, semi double, and double) were similar in all three populations.
This project examined rose (Rosa ×hybrida) performance by measuring flower size and flower numbers per inflorescence in spring, summer, and fall seasons (mean temperatures 21.7, 30.0, and 18.1 °C, respectively) in interrelated rose populations. Populations and progeny differed in flower size as expected. Heat stress in the summer season decreased flower diameter (18%), petal number (17% to 20%), and flower dry weight (32%). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant population/progeny × heat stress interaction for flower diameter indicating that rose genotypes responded differentially to heat stress. Flower size traits had moderate low to moderate narrow-sense (0.38, 0.26–0.33, and 0.53 for flower diameter, petal number, and flower dry weight, respectively) and moderately high to high broad-sense (0.70, 0.85–0.91, and 0.88 for flower diameter, petal number, and flower dry weight, respectively) heritability. Genotype × environment (G × E) variance (population/progeny × heat stress) for flower diameter accounted for ≈35% of the total variance in the field experiment indicating that heat stress had moderate differential genotypic effects. However, the genetic variance was several fold greater than the G × E variance indicating selection for flower size would be effective in any season but for the selection of a stable flower size (heat tolerant) rose genotype, selection would be required in both the cool and warm seasons. Seasonal differences in flower productivity of new shoots did not appear related to heat stress but rather to the severity of pruning conducted in the different seasons. The number of flowers produced on the inflorescence had moderate narrow-sense (h 2 = 0.43) and high broad-sense (H 2 = 0.75) heritability with a moderate genotype × pruning effect that explained about 36% of the variance.
Abstract
Twenty-nine Japanese-type plum clones were assayed for isozymic variability for eight enzyme systems. Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), leucine amino-peptidase (LAP), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), phosphoglucomutase (PGM), and peroxidase (PX) showed variability among the plums surveyed. 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD) and triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) were not variable. Isozymic characterization uniquely identified 38% of the clones. The remainder separated into groups of two to three clones that were distinguishable using vegetative morphological characteristics. Reported parentage of five out of nine plums examined was not consistent with their isozymic genotypes.
Abstract
Seven enzyme systems were examined in 69 apricot [Prunus armeniaca L. and P. mandshurica (Maxim.) Koehne] clones. Three enzymes (6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, phosphoglucose isomerase, and phosphoglucomutase) were polymorphic at five loci. Only seven clones were characterized uniquely by their isozyme phenotypes and 56% fell into two of the 15 phenotypic groups found. Isozyme variability in apricot was greater than in peach, but less than that reported in plum or almond.