Future Breeding Strategies

Abstract

Pear breeding is considered as one of the most important sectors of temperate fruit breeding. While this follows breeding efforts for apple, new technologies and approaches are awaiting pear breeders on the horizon. New plant breeding techniques, tested for their efficacy in other fruit trees, as well as conventional methods will be presented in this chapter. Moreover, the potential combination of these approaches toward development of ‘smart’ pear cultivars will be also described. Furthermore, as there is an observed trend of elevated consciousness of the health benefits of organically grown crops among consumers worldwide, the issue of organic pear breeding strategies pear will also be discussed. Based on the principles of organic plant breeding, any breeding technique is evaluated against four mandatory criteria, and must meet genome- and cell-level integrity, capability for propagation, as well as preservation against crossing barriers. Thus, the use of molecular markers as diagnostic tools is not excluded in organic breeding. For future pear breeding strategies, the merger of different ‘omics’ technologies will provide holistic approaches for discovery of gene function, elucidate mechanisms of gene function, support genotyping, and accelerate the breeding cycle. Furthermore, nanotechnologies utilized in gene transfer, phenotyping, detection of pathogens, and sequencing will also contribute to faster, more precise and specific high-quality monitoring, and consequently breeding of cultivars resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses.