Introduction to Fruit Crops. Mark Rieger (University of Florida). 2006. The Haworth Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. 462 pp. $69.95 softcover. ISBN-13: 978-1-56022-259-0/ ISBN-10: 1-56022-259-X This book is quite unique
Introduction to Fruit Crops. Mark Rieger. 2006. $69.95 soft. Haworth Press, Binghamton, N.Y. ISBN-13:978-1-56022-259-0 / ISBN-10: 1-56022-259-X. Pages, 462 pp. with Index. Includes 46 pp. of color photos. 8.25” × 10.75” format. Web: http
Abstract
In China, research on tissue culture applications to fruit crop improvement has expanded greatly in the past 10 years. Tissue culture is considered to be an effective method for a) virus elimination from vegetatively propagated plants; b) rapid clonal multiplication of superior cultivars; c) the isolation and avoidance of chimeras that appear in mutation breeding, d) the establishment of haploid and polyploid lines; e) overcoming sterility in breeding through embryo rescue; and f) germplasm maintenance and storage. Tissue culture technology has been used for most of the important fruit crops in China, including a few fruit crops introduced from foreign countries (Table 1). Plants can be regenerated from various explants such as a) shoot-tips and meristems, b) cotyledons, c) anthers, d) immature and mature embryos, and e) endosperm. Plants can also be regenerated from protoplasts via organogenesis, somatic embryogenesis, or axillary bud proliferation. Procedures for the mass production in vitro of plants for commercial purposes have been established in grape (Vitis vinifera L.), hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida Bunge), strawberry (Fragaria spp.), and currant (Ribes nigrum L.). An overview of the various tissue culture technologies that are being used to improve fruit crops in China is presented here.
Abstract
Physiological problems observed during postharvest handling of deciduous fruit crops often originate during production as a result of climatic, nutritional, or other cultural factors. Sometimes the likelihood of a problem occurring is partially under genetic control. For a postharvest physiologist to be fully effective in evaluating a problem, he must know the cultural history of the commodity with which he is working. Similarly, the researcher studying cultural factors should know the relationships between treatment variables and quality traits. Often this can best be accomplished by collaboration of researchers working in both fields, but one individual with proper background and interest may also acquire relatively complete information. I consider this symposium highly appropriate to point out interrelations between plant nutrition and commodity quality, and the need for adequate information on quality aspects of nutritional research to enable accurate interpretation of results.
Temperate fruit. Temperate fruit crops grown commercially in Florida include blueberry, stone fruit [(peach ( Prunus persica ), nectarine ( P. persica var. nectarina ), plum ( Prunus salicina )], muscadine grape, brambles (primarily blackberry
Services (2007) estimated that the loss for agricultural crops after the freeze was $112 million with fruit crop losses of $86 million (D. Hamrick, personal communication). In Missouri, which has a relatively small commercial fruit industry, the economic
Plants respond to wind in a manner similar to drought, but, in addition, leaves suffer physical or mechanical damage. Long-term wind stress results in smaller plants, less total leaf area, skewed tree growth because most of the branches grow toward the leeward side, and less yield than plants protected from wind. A simple procedure to simulate abrasion damage to leaves helps growers recognize wind damage to several fruit crops.
Low temperature is one of the most important environmental factors limiting crop plant growth, distribution, and productivity. New cultivars with improved freezing tolerance are a common breeding objective of many temperate fruit breeding programs. Improved freezing tolerance would prevent crop loss due to low temperature and reduce yearly fluctuations in crop quantity and quality. Breeding temperate fruit cultivars for improved freezing tolerance is made difficult by several factors, including complexity of the phenotype, difficulty in accurate measurement of the phenotype, and lack of fundamental knowledge concerning the inheritance and genetic control of this trait. Results from inheritance studies of freezing tolerance in temperate fruit crops as well as recent research in forestry genetics highlight some of the challenges and opportunities for further elucidating the inheritance of freezing tolerance in temperate fruit crops. A tremendous amount of research has been conducted describing the molecular biology and signal transduction of the cold acclimation response in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. These findings have begun the transfer to research in agriculturally important crops and hold great promise for elucidating novel methods for generating new fruit cultivars with improved freezing tolerance.
Abstract
Scanning electron microscopy studies were made on pollen samples from several small fruit crops: 3 selections of blueberry (Vaccinium), 4 Vitis spp. (V. vinifera L., V. cinerea Engelm., V. rupestris Scheele, and V. amurensis Rupr.), 2 cultivars of raspberry (Rubus), 5 cultivars of blackberry (Rubus), and several species and ploidy levels of strawberry (Fragaria) including 54 cultivars of F. × ananassa Duch., as well as pollen of Duchesnea and Potentilla.
Pollen size and exine characteristics were similar for 4 grape species examined. Polyploid blueberry selections were separable from the diploid selection by pollen grain size. Raspberry and blackberry pollen differed in size, exine ridging or reticulation, and presence of borderless or collared pores. Strawberry pollen is characterized by exine ridging and absence of pores. Cultivars of Fragaria × ananassa could be categorized into 4 groups according to exine ridge patterns. Cultivars exhibited broad longitudinal ridges or were characterized by less prominant to indistinct ridges. One cultivar was unique in that anastomosing ridges were present between adjacent ridges.
Pollen grains of diploid F. vesca L., F. vesca fma. semperflorens Duch., and F. nubicola Lindl, ex Lacaita; a tetraploid clone of F. vesca; the hexaploid F. moschata Duch.; and octoploid F. × ananassa, F. chiloensis (L.) Duch., and F. virginiana Duch. are broadly elliptical, tricolporate and moderately to prominently ridged. Size of pollen and prominance of exine ridges appeared to correspond with ploidy level. Pollen of F. nipponica Mak. differed in that grains are subprolate to sphaeroidal and exine is ornamented with minute, rounded to subconical verrucae arranged in rows. Pollen of the related genera Duchesnea and Potentilla were very similar morphologically to those of octoploid Fragaria spp., except that pollen of D. indica (Andr.) Focke are larger and the exine of P. recta L. exhibits an extremely minute pore structure.
fruit production. Recent investigations suggest that Akebia is worthy of being exploited as a new high-value fruit crop in China for its health benefits and other newly found fruit properties. This article provides a broad review on the most