Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #377877
Research Project: Improving Fruit Crop Traits Through Advanced Genomic, Breeding, and Management Technologies

Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection

Title: Genetic transformation in peach (Prunus persica L.): challenges and ways forward

Author
item RICCI, ANGELA - Polytechnic University Of Marche
item SABBADINI, SILVIA - Polytechnic University Of Marche
item PRIETO, HUMBERTO - La Platina Resesearch Center
item PADILLA, ISABEL - Ifapa-Centro De Churriana
item Dardick, Christopher - Chris
item LI, ZHIJIAN - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE)
item RALPH, SCORZA - Retired ARS Employee
item LIMERA, CECILIA - Polytechnic University Of Marche
item MEZZETTI, BRUNO - Polytechnic University Of Marche
item PEREZ-JIMENEZ, MARGARITA - Murciano Research Institute And Agricultural Development And Food (IMIDA)
item BURGOS, LORENZO - Centro De Edafologia Y Biologia Aplicada Del Segura (CEBAS)
item PETRI, CESAR - Instituto De Hortofruticultura Subtropical Y Mediterranea La Mayora

Submitted to: Plants
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/29/2020
Publication Date: 7/31/2020
Citation: Ricci, A., Sabbadini, S., Prieto, H., Padilla, I.M., Dardick, C.D., Li, Z., Ralph, S., Limera, C., Mezzetti, B., Perez-Jimenez, M., Burgos, L., Petri, C. 2020. Genetic transformation in peach (Prunus persica L.): challenges and ways forward. Plants. 9(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9080971.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9080971

Interpretive Summary: Genetic transformation of peach has long been a bottleneck to genetic studies in this important crop species. Here, we report the latest progress in peach transformation and provide a path forward for future work. We tested various approaches, such as new hormone treatments, to improve the efficiency of peach shoot regeneration from transformated cells and identified the key limiting factors and steps in the process. We report that the low efficiency of peach transformation is caused by the the lack of competance of peach cells resulting in both minimal cellular transformation and a low level of plant regeneration.

Technical Abstract: Almost thirty years have passed since the first publication reporting regeneration of transformed peach plants. Nevertheless, the general applicability of genetic transformation of this species has not yet been established. Many strategies have been tested in order to obtain an efficient peach transformation system. Despite the amount of time and efforts invested, the lack of success has significantly limited the utility of peach as a model genetic system for trees, given its relatively short generation time, small high-quality genome, and well-studied genetic resources. Additionally, the absence of efficient genetic transformation protocols avoids the application of many biotechnological tools in peach breeding programs. In this manuscript, we provide an overview of research on regeneration and genetic transformation in this species and summarizing novel unpublished strategies/procedures aimed at producing transgenic peaches. Promising future approaches to develop a robust peach transformation system are discussed, mainly focused in the low efficiency of A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation, the low level of correspondence between cells competent for transformation and those that are regeneration competent, and the high rate of chimerism in the few shoots that are produced following transformation.