Apricots

Abstract

Several dozen publicly-sponsored breeding programs around the world are developing new fresh market and processing apricot cultivars. Apricots have a more limited environmental range than other tree fruits, and therefore, many breeders are interested in broadening adaptations for specific growing regions. Plum Pox Virus resistance is a widely pursued objective and there are ongoing efforts to identify molecular markers that are closely linked to disease resistance. Fruit sugars, acids, pigments and volatile aromatic compounds are being quantified in newly bred and historically important cultivars. Researchers have identified and characterized several stylar ribonucleases associated with self-unfruitfulness. Molecular phylogenetic studies are examining the dispersion routes of apricot germplasm from its centers of origin to those cultivars currently in production. Although several linkage maps have been developed using diverse parents and a wide variety of molecular markers from apricot and other Prunus crops, the scarcity of documented monogenic characters in apricot limits the effectiveness of marker assisted selection for economically important traits.