title: Breeding in peach, cherry and plum: from a tissue culture, genetic, transcriptomic and genomic perspective.
abstract: This review is an overview of traditional and modern breeding methodologies being used to develop new Prunus cultivars (stone fruits) with major emphasis on peach, sweet cherry and Japanese plum. To this end, common breeding tools used to produce seedlings, including in vitro culture tools, are discussed. Additionally, the mechanisms of inheritance of many important agronomical traits are described. Recent advances in stone fruit transcriptomics and genomic resources are providing an understanding of the molecular basis of phenotypic variability as well as the identification of allelic variants and molecular markers. These have potential applications for understanding the genetic diversity of the Prunus species, molecular marker-assisted selection and transgenesis. Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNPs) molecular markers are described as useful tools to describe genetic diversity in peach, sweet cherry and Japanese plum. Additionally, the recently sequenced peach genome and the public release of the sweet cherry genome are discussed in terms of their applicability to breeding programs.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Agronomía e Ingeniería Forestal, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, bcarrasco@uc.cl.
authors.forename: Basilio
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Carrasco
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, lmeisel@inta.uchile.cl.
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meisel
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Agronomía e Ingeniería Forestal, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, bcarrasco@uc.cl.
authors.forename: Marlene
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gebauer
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biotecnología de los Recursos Naturales, Departamento de Ingeniería Forestal, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca, Chile, rgarciag@ucm.cl.
authors.forename: Rolando
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garcia-Gonzales
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Genómica Funcional & Bioinformática, Departamento de Producción Agrícola, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, hesilva@uchile.cl.
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Silva
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D010641:Phenotype; D000069600:Plant Breeding; D027861:Prunus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000235:genetics*