2013 CIOPORA Chronicle

Fruit breeding
The creation of a
new fruit variety,
either of pome
fruits, or stone
fruits is a long and
elaborate process.
The long juvenile
period and life cycle
of these species
often hinders a
fast development
of new varieties.
A new project
FruitBreedomics
under the funding of
the EU FP7 program
aims at building
synergies in the EU
fruit breeding sector
and fostering an
effective knowledge
and technology
transfer between
the fruit sector
stakeholders.
by Joan Bonany and
François Laurens
FruitBreedomics
improves efficiency
of fruit breeding
Breeding programmes for
major fruit species in Europe
are numerous and distributed
around the different growing areas
with a total of 49 apple and
42 peach breeding programmes
identified around Europe.
Pome fruit breeding programmes
are widespread all over Europe but
more predominantly in Central
regions. There are also programmes
located in other climatic environments
with completely different set
of requirements.
In case of stone fruit, breeding
programmes are mostly located in
the South. In general, as discovered
by a recent survey by the Fruit-
Breedomics project, apple breeding
programmes focus on objectives
such as disease resistance, fruit
quality, productivity, storability,
shelf life, fruit homogeneity and
size. In the case of peach and
nectarine, the aims of the breeding
efforts are fruit flavor, firmness,
sweetness and aroma, fruit characteristics,
tree habit, harvest date and
shelf life.
The breeding programmes are
relying on both private and public
funding, whereas the private funding
often results in varieties with
restricted schemes for development
on the market (‘club varieties’).
Most of the fruit breeding programmes
are based on the classic
breeding schemes - phenotypical
selection of best individuals in a
specific election site is a common
methodology. The Marker Assisted
Selection is seldom used in commercial
breeding programmes.
WP9-Management
WP1-Increasing efficiency of
(marker assisted) breeding
WP3-Identification and
characterisation of QTL for fruit
quality and disease resistance
by the pedigree based approach
WP6-Development of marker/gene
arrays for high throughput
genotyping
FruitBreedomics
In view of this situation the
research project, FruitBreedomics,
funded by the EU FP7 programe,
was started to assist the fruit breeding
programmes. FruitBreedomics
aims at bridging the gap between
the state-of-the-art genetic research
and its application in fruit breeding.
By using a multidisciplinary approach,
including genetics, genomics,
eco-physiology and bioinformatics,
it is called upon to improve
the efficiency of the apple and
peach breeding programmes by:
1. developing new and adapted
tools,
2. studying a wide range of traits to
enlarge the coverage of selection
criteria,
3. analysing and exploiting the
wide genetic diversity available,
WP5-Understanding the genetics
underlying novel traits and
providing phenotypic methods
EUROPEAN BREEDING PLATFORM
DIVERSITY AND QTL MAPPING PILAR
WP2-Establishment of
pre-breeding material
WP4-Exploring the phenotypic
and genotic diversity in apple
and peach germplasm collections
and its exploitation by AG approach
WP7-Tools and data management
TOOLS AND DATAMANAGEMENT PILAR
4. making the research outputs
(valuable traits, genetic markers,
new plant material) directly
applicable for breeders,
5. establishing a stakeholder
network
Although it focuses on apple and
peach, many of its tools will also
benefit other species.
Work packages
The project is structured in several
work-packages (WPs). Two WPs
are directly dedicated to breeding:
WP1 develops a validated pipeline
for Marker Assisted Breeding and
implements it in the ongoing
commercial breeding programs;
WP2 makes available the selected
pre-breeding material to the
consortium of project partners and
aims at reducing the introgression
WP8-Outreach
44 www.FloraCultureInternational.com | CIOPORA Chronicle April 2013