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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Geneva, New York » Plant Genetic Resources Unit (PGRU) » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #415430
Research Project: Development of Improved Apple Rootstocks with Tolerance to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

Location: Plant Genetic Resources Unit (PGRU)

Title: Guiding principles in the Geneva® apple rootstock breeding program

Author
item Fazio, Gennaro
item ROBINSON, TERENCE - Cornell University

Submitted to: Italus Hortus
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/4/2024
Publication Date: 6/10/2024
Citation: Fazio, G., Robinson, T. 2024. Guiding principles in the Geneva® apple rootstock breeding program. Italus Hortus. https://doi.org/10.26353/j.itahort/2024.1.2742.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26353/j.itahort/2024.1.2742

Interpretive Summary: The article describes the guiding principles and goals of the Geneva apple rootstock breeding program which include increased productivity, increased resistance to diseases, increased tolerance to climate stresses and increased long term sustainability. The project tries to utilize the most up to date methodology for breeding and discovery of new traits that are useful for the apple industry.

Technical Abstract: The Geneva® apple rootstock breeding program has been operating for more than 50 years and through a rigorous breeding and selection process has released several rootstocks that have provided solutions for some of the major rootstock related problems faced by the apple industry worldwide. Research and development for new apple rootstocks encompasses diverse disciplines and research areas including plant physiology, genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, horticulture, and economics. The process of developing the plan for developing new apple rootstocks and related knowledge base is guided by grower-advised principles and distilled into priorities including disease and insect resistance (fire blight, replant disease, wooly apple aphids, viruses, and viroids), productivity, and sustainability (dwarfing, early bearing, yield efficiency, nutrient absorption efficiency, improved fruit size and quality and winter hardiness). The project continues to develop new breeding populations to address these priorities and discover new germplasm sources to increase resilience of the germplasm to future challenges.