New Zealand interspecific pear breeding programme: progress on fruit quality targets

The Plant & Food Research interspecific pear breeding programme began in 1983, when a range of European, Asian and interspecific families were created. Since 2001 the programme has focused on interspecific hybrids. Strong focus has been placed on fruit quality, with up to 40 traits monitored to develop a composite quality score. A positive shift in overall fruit quality appears to have occurred in fourth-generation families evaluated in 2016-18, attributable to a gradual improvement across a range of the quality traits measured. Genotyping-by-sequencing of European, Asian cultivars and interspecific hybrids from within the programme has highlighted the genetic differentiation that has occurred. Principal component analysis has positioned hybrids between the European and Asian species according to the proportion of genetic material provided by each species.