Genetics and breeding of fruit crops in the annonaceae family: Annona spp. and asimina spp.

Abstract

The Annonaceae is the largest family in the early-divergent Magnoliid clade of angiosperms with a limited number of species producing edible fruits. The species of agronomic interest in the family belong to two genera, Annona and Asimina. Several of those species have been cultivated and used as a food source by pre-Columbian cultures in the Americas. Their cultivation has continued to the present day and now they are incipient but prosperous crops in several countries. The most widely cultivated species in the family are Annona cherimola (cherimoya), A. squamosa (sugar apple), A. muricata (soursop), A. cherimola × A. squamosa (hybrid atemoya) and Asimina triloba (pawpaw). With the exception of cherimoya, which is a distinct subtropical species, most of the fruit crops in the genus Annona originate from warm lowland tropical regions and they have naturalized in different regions with subtropical and tropical climates. The pawpaw is the most widespread and the only species in the Asimina genus that produces fruits of significant interest as a food source and the northernmost representative of the Annonaceae. In this review several aspects of genetics and breeding, mainly in cherimoya and pawpaw, are discussed.