ADVANCES AND CHALLENGES IN FRUIT ROOTSTOCK RESEARCH

K. Hrotkó
There has been major progress made by rootstock breeders in the second half of the last century. The increased breeding activity of rootstock breeders is the reason why new rootstocks are provided to fruit growers in a wide range of vigour for species, such as apple, pear and cherry. As for plum, peach and apricot rootstocks, the genetic diversity and heritability of rootstock characteristics are not sufficiently known. The gene pool utilized for rootstock breeding is narrow. There is still much to be discovered about the genetic diversity of species used as rootstocks from their original gene-centres. This requires cooperation among researchers from those gene-centre regions in Europe and Asia. Additionally, rapid progress is needed in the marker-assisted breeding of rootstocks, which would require more active genetic work. The development of orchard systems may modify the targets of rootstock breeders, thus a continuous conversation is needed between orchard system and rootstock research. Rootstock selection for sustainable fruit growing is an important opportunity to improve orchard resistance to pests and diseases and tolerance for abiotic stress conditions. The climate changes also bring challenges for temperate zone fruit growing, and increased cold tolerance, drought tolerance, and economic water utilization of rootstocks will have increased importance in some geographical areas. Control and management of the above factors require the understanding of the rootstock scion interactions, but in this field very little progress was made during the last decade. In order to aid progress, future research should integrate the recent approaches and methods of modern molecular biology.
Hrotkó, K. (2007). ADVANCES AND CHALLENGES IN FRUIT ROOTSTOCK RESEARCH. Acta Hortic. 732, 33-42
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.732.1
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.732.1
breeder, gene-centre, genetics, growers, orchard, resistance, species, tolerance, apple, cherry, rootstock breeding
English

Acta Horticulturae