MOLECULAR PHENOGENETICS AS AN AID TO FRUIT BREEDING

In fruit breeding and biotechnology, recurrent selection is based on the phenotypic expressions of various genotypes over an array of environments and cultural conditions.
The interpretation of global and local phenotypic traits for an ideotype or elite tree is increasingly being sought at the molecular level.
Many useful traits are revealed by the use of physiological state-metabolic network response surfaces against the appropriate genetic backgrounds.
This approach increases the opportunity for the development of rigorous qualitative and quantitative reasoning for large data sets inherent in phenotypic evaluation of multiple traits.
Here, computer-assisted expert systems should emerge to aid tree breeding and improvement.
The pressures for a solid foundation in molecular phenogenetics will increase with the recovery of transgenic plants, the mapping of restriction fragment length polymorphisms, disastrous climatic change, and the need to understand gene expression in terms of precise environmental adaptation and productivity.

I International Symposium on In Vitro Culture and Horticultural Breeding

Don J. Durzan

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1990.280.90