The pineapple is a tropical and subtropical fruit . Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is one of the commercially important fruit crops of India. Total annual world production is estimated at 14.6 MT of fruits. India is the fifth largest producer of pineapple with an annual output of about 1.2 MT. common throughout the Bromeliaceae but Ananus is typically diploid (2n=2X=50)while pseudananas is tetraploid (2n=4X=100).Some triplod genotype with 2n=3x=75(e.g. Cayenne BR59,Spanish GU75-2 and DOS indios BR47)have also reported to exist. Other leading producers are Thailand, Philippines, Brazil, China, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Colombia and USA.Cultivation of pineapple originated in Brazil.

1. 1

2. 2
SUBMITTED BY:-
Mahida Archanaben Vasharambhai
2nd Semester MSc.(Horticulture)
Fruit Science
ASPEE College of Horticulture &
Forestry, NAU,
SUBMITTED TO:-
Dr. T. R. Ahlawat
Associate Professor [Fruit Science ]
ASPEE College of Horticulture & Forestry
NAU, Navsari-396450
Genetic improvement in pineapple

3. 3
INTRODUCTION
•The pineapple is a tropical and subtropical fruit .
•Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is one of the commercially important fruit crops
of India.
•Total annual world production is estimated at 14.6 MT of fruits.
•India is the fifth largest producer of pineapple with an annual output of about
1.2 MT.
•Other leading producers are Thailand, Philippines, Brazil, China, Nigeria,
Mexico, Indonesia, Colombia and USA.Cultivation of pineapple originated
in Brazil.
Order and Family of Pineapple:-
Order : Bromeliales
Family : Bromeliaceae

4. Taxonomy
The pineapple belongs to family bromeliaceae .the genus Ananus and
the closely related genus Pseudananas has no such crown.Both the
genera share the basic ch.no X=25.
common throughout the Bromeliaceae but Ananus is typically diploid
(2n=2X=50)while pseudananas is tetraploid (2n=4X=100).Some triplod
genotype with 2n=3x=75(e.g. Cayenne BR59,Spanish GU75-2 and DOS
indios BR47)have also reported to exist.
4

5.  A. bracteatus
 A. frizmuellelleri, and A. parguazensis – closely related
 A. ananassoides and A.erectifolius –become nearly dry at
maturity with little flesh
 A.erectifolius –considered as a potential fiber crop and has
long almost spineless leaves.
The genus Pseudananas is monotypic and has
one species i.e. P. sagenarius .it is compatible with A.
comosus and has been crossed to obtain hybrid Dewald.
Wild species of Ananas
5

6. Genetic resources
Earlier Hume and Miller (1904) divided varieties in Florida
into three groups on the basis of general similarity of
characters .these were designated as Queen group with 6
varieties , Red Spanish with 7 var. and Cayenne with 3 var.
According to Knight and samson ,all pineapple are classified
in five major groups according to their specific characteristics.
6

7. Major group and their characteristics
Major group Important cultivars of the
group
Characteristics
Cayenne Smooth Cayenne
Cayenne Lisse, Hillo
Cayenne
Fruit cylindrical in shape
suitable for canning
Queen Mac Gregor , Z.Queen More disease resistant than
cayenne
Spanish Red Spanish , Singapore
Spanish
Resistant to mealy bug wilt,
susceptible to Gummosis,
grown for fresh local
consumption and export to
other countries
Abacaxi Perola, Sugar loaf Disease resistant , Leaves are
spiny, fruit neither process nor
survine export well
Maipure Bumanguesa Sweeter than cayenne, aromatic
fibrous but tender and very
juice, leaves completely smooth
7

8. Smooth Cayenne is the most commonly grown pineapple it combines
nearly spineless leaves with high production ,high fruit quality and
resistance to gummosis. No other cultivar has fruit of such good ,
cylindrical shape ideal for canning.
Other member of cayenne group are Hilo which does not produce slips
and Baronne de Rothsehild which has Spiny leaves.
Avalible genotype are being maintained in field gene bank at various
research center working on pineapple , though possibility of in –vitro
storage has been indicated and practiced .
8

9. Breeding objective
1. High yield with early maturity and early ripening
2. Adaption to local environment condition
3. Hardy vigorous plants with large and vigorous root systems
4. Spineless leaves for ease of handling
5. Short but strong fruit stalk to keep fruit erect and minimize sun –scorch
6. Absence of multiple crowns and fasciation
7. Absence of collar of slips
8. Fruits for canning as nearly cylindrical as possible
9. Flesh firm with few fibers ,crisp, juicy of good flavor and aroma and
deep yellow colour
10. Early formation of one or two shoot and presence of one or two slips at
least 2 cm below the fruit base
11. Small ratio of leaf to fruit
12. Short leaf length and narrow angle of leaf emergence
13. Resistance to pest and disease 9

10. Floral Biology
Pineapple is perennial monocarpic herb. As in banana each stem
flowers only once and dies after fruiting , a side shoot then takes over.
Natural inflorescence initiation (flowering) usually occurs in response to
decreasing day length and temperature after the pineapple plant reaches a
certain size ( Bartholomew, 1986).
A night temperature of 20°C promoted flowering of Smooth Cayenne
pineapple grown under an 8 hr day length while flowering was delayed
by temperature of 15 and 20 °C and completely inhibited by 30°C.
Usually , flower initiation begins in November and continues
throughout the winter. Under nature conditions flowering is highly
irregular like may fail to produce fruit. Thus, in commercial practice ,
growth regulators like ethylene ( 25-50 ppm) and NAA (25 ppm) are
used to force plant to flower.
10

11. The numerous radish – purple sessile flowers are arranged spirally on the
axis , each subtended by a pointed bract. This stage is also referred to as
red bud stage to describe the appearance of developing inflorescence.
The inflorescence is spike like and consists of 100 to 200 florets.
At anthesis , the petals are white at a base , bluish – purple above the
calyx , liguliform in shape, about 1.6 cm long and 5 mm wide ( Collins ,
1960).the flower petals are very close together at the outer and so only
small insect can enter the flower.
They range in number from 14 to 20 locule, thus making a potential of
6000 to 7000 seeds per fruit of 150 florets. this is seldom attained ;
however fruits having 2000 to 3000 seeds are not uncommon after
pollination ( Collins,1960).
11

12. Controlled pollination
Pineapple flower open in early morning ( 6-9 am ) and are faded by
evening . Anthesis takes place in sequence stating with the lower flower
at a base of inflorescence. About five to ten flower open daily .Over a
period of 2 to 3 weeks flowering proceeds gradually up the inflorescence
axis and completes the process entirely.
Almost all varieties produce viable pollens but cannot be self-
incompatibility. Thus they do not produce seed after self-fertilization.
Cross pollination between cultivars ,or between cultivars and wild forms,
results in normal fertilization with the production of seeds in abundance.
Humming birds are the main pollinating agents in South America. but
they do not occur in other parts of world where pineapple are grown so
the pineapple fruits are usually parthenocarpic and seedless.
12

13. Incompatibility and Seed setting
13
Ananas comosus is the only self- incompatible species in the
genus. Pseudananas and other wild species of Ananas are partiality self-
fertile. Brewbaka and Gorrez (1967) have shown that the pineapple
possesses a gametophytic S-allele type of incompatibility inducing
polyploidy in pineapple dose not break down the incompatibility system
(Pickersgill,1976). Coppens D'Eeckenbrugge et al.( 1997) have observed
that several clones belonging to Red Spanish and Singapore Spanish
varieties were incompatible.
Also, incompatibility widely prevails in pernambuco clones
confirming the heterogeneity of the group. However, the incompatible
Pernambuco genotypes were cross compatible with Queen, indicating that
they were genetically distinct from the other member of the same clone
despite its morphological similarity with the yellow-fleshed Pernambuco
clones (Coppens D'Eeckenbrugge et al., 1997). Smooth Cayenne also shows
a strong self-incompatibility reaction.

14. 14
In pineapple the fruit develops parthenocarpically. It is not known
whether pollination is required to initiate development. Self pollination
does not occur because pollen tube development aborts before reaching
the ovary. Fruits with seeds in them are harvested occasionally, but it is
not known whether they result from cross-pollination by insects
(humming birds, honey-bees and pineapple beetles) or an
environmentally induced change in physiology which breaches the
normal barrier to self-pollination. Natural crossing between clones will
produce seeds in fruits. Also, self-compatible mutants of Ananas
comosus produce fruits containing up to 3000 very hard seeds.

15. Inheritance Pattern
15
There are usually three types of leaves in pineapples (i) leaves
with spiny tips, (ii) spiny leaves in which the entire leaf margin bears
spines and (iii) ‘piping’ type i.e. a completely spineless leaf-form. Piping
type is characterized by haying a portion of the lower epidermis, with its
trichomes, stomata, and corrugated surface, folded over the edge of the
leaf and extending onto the upper leaf surface.
This produces on the upper surface of the leaf a narrow stripe
or `piping' which has the silvery-white colour on the lower surface. The
spiny tip and spiny leaf characters are the phenotypic expressions of a
single pair of alleles (S = spicy tips and s = spiny leaves), with spiny tips
being dominant. The heterozygous Ss and homozygous SS genotype
produce the same phenotype, spiny tips.

16. 16
The recessive ss genotypes give rise to spiny plants in progeny
(Collins and Kerns, 1946; Collins, 1960). The piping and non-
piping characters are controlled by another, non linked pair
of alleles, with the gene P (piping) being epistatic to S and s.
The homozygous PP genotype produces a more pronounced
piping than done the Pp has no obvious phenotype in the
presence of S or s genes ,hence such genotypes,if they exist ,
can not be distinguished phenotypically from spiny tips or
spiny plants (Collins. 1960).

17. Breeding Method
17
Selection Criteria
1. Spineless leaves
2. High slip production
3. Good sucker production
4. Upright sucker types
5. Disease tolerance
6. High yellow pigment in the winter
7. Square shoulder rather that pyramidal shape to increase slice production
in cannery
8. Single crown
9. Small core (core is an extension of peduncle)
10. Medium sized eye
11. Uniformity of ripening in each fruit
12. High soluble solids or sugar content and good sugar acid ratio
13. Yellow flesh for fresh fruit market

18. Breeding Method
18
Selection
Most of the improvement of the pineapple has taken place by simple
selection of mutant clones within existing cultivars and by hybridization
between cultivars followed by selection of the highly, heterozygous
progeny. Selection in the ‘’ Singapur Spanish’’ population in Malaysia has
led to a new cultivar “Masmerah" It is more vigorous, has more leaves,
which stand more erect and bears heavier fruit Than the parent cultivar
Wee, 1974).
Several such selections have been made in different pineapple growing
areas .Local selections are mostly known by their areas of origin, such as
'Sarawak' in Malaysia. Champaka is a selection Of 'Smooth Cayenne'
originating in India and widely grown in Hawaii.The Z- Queen or James
Queen is reported to be a mutant of `Netal Queen’ and is a natural
tetraploid.Puerto Rico is selection from an open pollinated cross Red
Spanish

19. 19
Hybridization
A-cross between Red Spanish and Cayenne has led to the development of
two new hybrids PR-1-67 and PR-1-56 in Puerto Rico (Ramirez, 1970).
This hybrid shows better plant vigour and resistance to wilt disease.
However, self-fertile somatic mutant obtained from cv. 'Cayenne' show a
loss of vigour on selfing and heterosis on crossing. A hybrid ‘Tainung 13’
has been obtained from a cross between Smooth Cayenne x Tainung 8
(Chang, 1995). Its average plant height is 127.5 cm, leaf length 104 cm, leaf
width 5.1 cm and leaf margin spineless (base and tip have small spines). It
bears cone shaped-fruits, average weight 1.2 kg, flesh-firm, green yellow,
slightly fibrous. It also has some degree of wilt tolerance in the field .
In India hybridization work was taken up at Pineapple Research Centre of
Kerala Agriculture University at Mannuthi.It has resulted in the
development of high yielding hybrid , Amritha ( Kew x Ripley Queen).
 In Taiwan two dwarf and high yielding hybrids namely Typhone 3 ,1 fruit
shape is cylindrical in Typhone 3.

20. 20
Mutation
Somatic mutation occur in nature and a considerable number of different
clones within a cultivar can now be distinguished. Collins and Kerns
(1938) described 30 mutant of cv. Cayenne. Natural mutants of cv.
Spanish ,Queen and Abacaxi have also been recognized some attempts
have been made to induce mutation.
Artificially with chemical mutagens or irradiation. In Kerala irradiation
of plants of the che cultivar Kew and Mauritius led to growth retardation
and premature suckeration . Merz (1954) reported the induction of self
fertile mutants by X-irradiation of pollen during meiosis. When
irradiation was done from a 60Co source inverse correlation existed
between irradiation dose and both pollen viability and tube growth.

21. Biotechnology
21
 Pineapple is a short statured herbaceous plants and its cultivation demands large
quantities of planting material. For example, cultivation in one hectare requires 35,000
to 70,000 planting pieces, depending, on the intensity of planting and the calyivar used.
Realizing the need for rapid multiplication Ma (1968) developed a method for fast
multiplication of pineapple following decapitation technique. Later on wang (1977)
developed a rapid in vitro propagation technique. Since then numerous reports are
available on micro-propagation of crop using tissue culture techniques.
Different kinds of explants, e.g. leaf base, shoot base, excised lateral buds and tips
from crowns, young-leaf segments and excised leaf buds have been used to regenerate
plants on supplemented MS medium. plantlets thus raised grew successfully in the
field. Tissue culture techniques also offer scope to induce in vitro mutation. Shoot-tips
collected from in vitro grown plantlets can be treated with chemical mutagens (EMS)
or radiated with gamma rays to obtain mutants with superior traits like spineless leaves ,
bigger size fruits, better pulp quality or disease resistance. Likewise somaclonal
variants can be screened out at an early stage for better field performance.

22. 22
Description of some popular Cultivars

23. 23

24. 24

25. 25

26. 26

27. 27

28. 28

29. 29

30. 30

31. 31