Fecha de publicación: 05/10/2024 Fuente: ISHS (International Society for Horticultural Science) Post date: Saturday 5 October 2024
Author:
ISHS Secretariat

In a mature market, interest in offering new plant material is more important than ever before. Japanese (Prunus salicina) and European (Prunus domestica) plum species, including plum and apricot hybrids, have become the focus of renewed breeding programs to develop novel fruit ideotypes. Resistance to disease, especially plum pox virus (PPV) and brown rot, environmental adaptation and enhancing fruit quality are the most desired features. In 2022, a new private plum breeding program, “Breezing”, started under the supervision of the University of Milan, Italy, with the aim of exploiting local Italian germplasm resources, as well as knowledge and techniques to develop promising materials. In making the first step, different crosses of P. salicina, P. domestica, and interspecific P. salicina × P. armeniaca were made, and an in-vitro protocol established to increase the germination rate of F1 seeds, leading to the production of several cross-combinations in the field. Under this protocol, the program has managed to overcome the low germination (1.6%) generally associated with classical seed stratification techniques, raising rates to about 17%. The ability to produce and analyze the resulting offspring will allow plant breeders to better understand and elucidate the genetic determinants of traits of interest and to develop molecular markers for more cost-effective and rapid breeding programs for these species.
Alessandro Giulio Tagliabue won the ISHS Young Minds Award for the best poster presentation at the I International Symposium on Apricot and Plum in France in April 2024.
Alessandro Giulio Tagliabue, University of Milan, Via Giovanni Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, e-mail: alessandro.tagliabue@unimi.it
The article is available in Chronica HorticulturaeTags: italian plumCategories: Young Minds Award Winners