1. The new EU project FruitBreedomics*: an integrated approach
for increasing breeding efficiency in fruit tree crops
Laurens Aranzana F 1, Arús Bassi Bonany Corelli MJ 2,
Davey Durel P2, D3, J 2, L4, M 5,
CE 1, Guerra W6, Pascal T1, Patocchi A7, Peace C8, Peil A9, Quilot B1, Rees J10, Troillard
V 11, Stella A12, Troggio M13, Velasco R13, White A14, Zhongshan G15 Van de Weg E16
(1) INRA, France (5) KUL, Belgium ( 9) JKI, Germany (13) FEM, Italy
(2) IRTA, Spain (6) RSL, Italy (10) ARC, South Africa (14) PFR, New Zealand
(3) Univ. Di Milano, Italy (7) AGROSCOPE (11) INRA-TRANSFERT, France (15) Zhejiang Univ, China
(4) Univ. of Bologna, Italy (8) WSU, USA (12) PTP-SRL, Italy (16) Wagenngen-UR, The Netherlands4
CONTEXT
The European fruit industry is facing economic challenges imposed by increasingly fierce international competition and decreasing
fruit consumption, societal demand for a more sustainable production, and biological problems caused by climate change. Releasing
new cultivars that meet these challenges is a major goal of all European breeding programs. However, responses to address them has
been slow due to the nature of fruit tree breeding: long term, low efficiency and hence high cost
OVERALL GOAL AND SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES PROJECT STRUCTURE
An international consortium gathering European and non European
teams (see figure) has designed FruitBreedomics1,2 to bridge the
gap between scientific genetics research and application in
breeding. The project will focus on apple and peach, two major
fruits in Europe, but the tools and the knowledge gained will also
benefit other species of the Rosaceae family.
The aim of FruitBreedomics is to provide the European fruit tree
sector with cutting-edge breeding tools for the efficient and Pedigree Based Analyses approach
accelerated creation of new apple and peach varieties with
excellent fruit quality characteristics, improved resistances to
diseases and pests, and that can be grown in a sustainable way in WP5- providing new phenotyping
tools
the context of climate change. A major breeding tool to be
developed is a validated pipeline for Marker Assisted Breeding and
its implementation in ongoing commercial breeding programs.
Towards this, efforts will be directed to improve our understanding
of the genetics of some major horticultural traits trough
association studies (Pedigree Based Analyses and LD), develop
innovative research tools to accelerate the breeding cycle, further
develop databases (in collaboration with the Genomics Database
Rosaceae2). Additionally, the project aims at increasing the PARTNERSHIP
accessibility of breeders to the genetic diversity present in
GeneBank germplasm collections, thus contributing to widening
the genetic basis of cultivated fruit trees.
26
FruitBreedomics will use a multidisciplinary approach that includes
genetics, genomics, ecophysiology and bioinformatics, and will 27
liaison international partners with complementary expertise. From
its start, the consortium aims at setting up a collaborative
European network of breeders, GeneBank curators and industry
representatives with the aim of rapidly and widely disseminating
and implementing the obtained results among all interest South Africa
New Zealand
European stakeholders. China
25 WSU USA
26 KUL
1http://fruitbreedomics.com, 2Laurens 2010, J Fruit Sci 27:102-107, 3www.rosaceae.org 4eric.vandeweg@wur.nl
27 RSL
The FRUITBREEDOMICS project is supported by the European Commission through the 7th Framework Program under contract number 265582