Advances and challenges in cherry breeding

Description

Cherry breeding is currently carried out in many countries, by public and private programmes, and sweet cherry cultivars are continuously being released. However, classification into clear-cut groups of existing cultivars is difficult, because there is a vast continuum of morphological diversity and many traits are influenced by differences in environmental factors among growing locations, including climate and soil characteristics as well as cultural practices. Despite the high number of available commercial cultivars, both sweet and sour cherry cultivation are still based on a small number of cultivars. After offering a historical overview of cherry breeding, this chapter describes the main achievements in conventional breeding, before considering methodologies and the latest advances and key cultivars. The chapter considers new approaches and phenotyping protocols. Finally, the chapter looks ahead to future research trends in this area.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Main achievements in conventional breeding 3 Methodologies 4 Advances and key cultivars 5 New approaches 6 Phenotyping protocols 7 Future trends and conclusion 8 References