Articles
Methods and results of Romanian apple breeding
Article number
1412_35
Pages
227 – 232
Language
English
Abstract
Apple breeding is the largest breeding activity of any fruit crop in the world.
It has been carried out in Europe for nearly 100 years and involved many research institutes and companies and hundreds of breeders.
In Romania, for more than 60 years of breeding, 71 apple cultivars have been developed and registered in the National Official Catalog which allows their cultivation and commercialization in the territory of Romania and of the member states of the European Union.
Different conventional breeding methods (open pollination, control pollination, and pollen, seeds and annual shoots growth irradiation with gamma or X-rays) followed by phenotypic selection were used.
Recently, marker–assisted selection was used as a powerful tool for the early selection of traits under monogenic control, such as disease resistance.
Since 2010, the crossing program involving nearly 50 parents is almost completed and most part of seedlings from these crosses are in the last step of the selection.
The breeding objectives are mainly focused on tree characteristics (e.g., plant vigour, habit, juvenility, and flowering time), fruit appearance (e.g., skin color, shape, size), fruit quality (e.g., taste, firmness, juiciness, flavor, good storage capacity) and durable disease resistance.
It has been carried out in Europe for nearly 100 years and involved many research institutes and companies and hundreds of breeders.
In Romania, for more than 60 years of breeding, 71 apple cultivars have been developed and registered in the National Official Catalog which allows their cultivation and commercialization in the territory of Romania and of the member states of the European Union.
Different conventional breeding methods (open pollination, control pollination, and pollen, seeds and annual shoots growth irradiation with gamma or X-rays) followed by phenotypic selection were used.
Recently, marker–assisted selection was used as a powerful tool for the early selection of traits under monogenic control, such as disease resistance.
Since 2010, the crossing program involving nearly 50 parents is almost completed and most part of seedlings from these crosses are in the last step of the selection.
The breeding objectives are mainly focused on tree characteristics (e.g., plant vigour, habit, juvenility, and flowering time), fruit appearance (e.g., skin color, shape, size), fruit quality (e.g., taste, firmness, juiciness, flavor, good storage capacity) and durable disease resistance.
Authors
M. Militaru, E. Mareși, A. Iancu, A.F. Sestraș, Gh. Petre, G. Guzu
Keywords
fruit quality, selections, genetic ressources, intraspecific crosses
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