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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #299863

Title: Tree fruit breeding for the 21st Century

Author
item Scorza, Ralph
item Callahan, Ann
item Dardick, Christopher - Chris
item Bell, Richard
item Liu, Zongrang
item Srinivasan, Chinnathambi
item Hollender, Courtney
item Vann, Cheryl
item RAVELONANDRO, M - Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique (INRA)

Submitted to: Aspects of Applied Biology
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/7/2013
Publication Date: 11/14/2013
Citation: Scorza, R., Callahan, A.M., Dardick, C.D., Bell, R.L., Liu, Z., Srinivasan, C., Hollender, C.A., Vann, C.D., Ravelonandro, M. 2013. Tree fruit breeding for the 21st Century. Aspects of Applied Biology. 119:1-12.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Fruit producers world-wide are facing challenges including climate change, reductions in available labor, the need for reduced chemical inputs, the spread of native and exotic pests and pathogens, and consumer demands for improved fruit quality and health benefits. Over the past quarter century, our group has worked on developing biotechnological tools to address these challenges. These currently include genetically engineered (GE) resistance to Plum pox virus; the development of GE rootstocks that are pathogen resistant or dwarfing; GE approaches to radically shortening the breeding cycle of fruit trees to less than one year, and strategies to engineer trees with more favorable architectures. Meeting current and future fruit production challenges will require integrated teams that can interact with growers and consumers to identify critical challenges, choose the most efficient approach(s) both conventional and/or “biotech” and develop practical solutions that can be rapidly extended to and adopted by growers.